“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 ESV
One of my favorite verses. God takes out our cold hearts of stone and replaces them with soft hearts of flesh. Automatically? Or is it a process?
“God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.’” Genesis 35:1-3 ESV
God asked Jacob to build an altar to Him. Jacob then asked everyone traveling with him to give up their idols. He also acknowledges that God has been with him, despite his own deceit and treachery.
Today we can do the same. Build an altar in our hearts for the Living God. Give up our idols- anything in our lives that takes the place of God. He does answer us in our distress. He does go with us always. He does replace our cold stony hearts with hearts of flesh. Today let’s crawl back on that altar.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 ESV
