Friday, 02 October 2009

• A New Heart

  Recently, I had a heart catheterization because of some symptoms I was having.  The procedure showed that there was blockage in the arteries of my heart, but that it was not sufficient to require surgery.  So my  heart is still doing its job.

  However, there was another examination done years previous to this on my old heart - the heart that is the core of my being.  This heart was tried and found to be full of sin and was hardened against God .  I had to receive a new heart if I was ever going to please Him and fulfill the purpose for which I was made.  Just the other day, someone asked me about the new heart God had given me, and what I had to do in order to get it.  The following is from the answer that I gave:

  This question you asked is central to all that I am now and how I can know God personally. And by the way, it is the reason I seek to know Him even better.
  
  In the Bible in Jeremiah chapter 17 vs. 9 God says: "The heart (of man) is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" [Of course it is God who knows how wicked we are - how much we rebel against our God and how selfish and sinful our desires are.]
  
  When God speaks of the "heart," he is referring to the innermost being of man. The heart is not just the organ that pumps blood, but it is who and what we are inside. All that we are is centered in the heart. God says that inside we are wicked. We want what we want and nobody is going to stop us from getting it. This is what sin is: going against God and all He has made us to be. No matter how much "good" we do, it is not enough to measure up to the goodness that God made us to have. Doing some "good" does not take away that wickedness in our heart.
  
  There is only one remedy for the tendency toward wickedness and that has to come from God Himself. On the cross Christ suffered for the ungodly (us). Even though He never sinned, He willingly paid the penalty for our sin, [and that penalty is death] so that we could have a new heart - a new nature. Since our sin is forgiven, God is able to make us new creatures when we accept (believe) that Christ died for our sin and was raised from the dead.
  
  In Ezekiel chapter 11 vs. 19, God says: "...I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony (wicked) heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh."
  
  In Ezekiel chapter 18 vs. 33&32 He says: "Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God Therefore turn and live."
  
  So when we acknowledge that we are sinners (and we all are) and turn from our sins and turn to Christ, accepting that He had to die in order to change us and cleanse us from sin, God gives us that new heart and new spirit. We then become God's child.
  
  In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 vs.17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ (believing, trusting)he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold all things have become new. (including our heart)
  
  This is what happened to me. It was how God gave me a new heart. No amount of trying or doing "good" things would ever have been enough for God to have given me this new heart. This new heart is a gift (known as grace - something that we don't deserve and cannot earn) This new heart is mine forever. I am now a son of God by faith in His Son.
  
  Even though I am not perfect in the flesh, the new me, the reborn son of God is perfect. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 vs. 21, God sums it all up: "For He made Him (Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
  
  My physical heart is getting old. I will not live after my physical heart dies, but I will go to be with my Father God forever because of what Jesus Christ did in my behalf. The reason I took so much pains to explain this is because I want anyone reading this to know that nothing I have done (or kept from doing) is responsible for the right standing I have with God. It is all of Him for His glory - I am now and forever will be grateful for His love for me.
  
  I hope that this answers your question. If you haven't received a new heart from God, you can, in the same way I did: by faith in Christ plus nothing. I hope you are a new creation in Christ or will very soon become one.

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