A NEW HEART
‘And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.’ (Ez 36:26)
Repentance is God’s process of refurbishing us. It is not a heart transplant that God offers, it is a heart transformation. It is a change of heart – a process of reordering what you prioritize, what you focus on, what you find meaning in. And as we yield to that, God’s Spirit fills the space that we have surrendered and we are able to walk in the power of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:25 says
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Repentance is the process of yielding to the Holy Spirit’s leading, following the Spirit in every part of our lives. It is a recalibration of our heart and mind.
This process of receiving a new heart, requires that we accept the newness. That we change our minds about what the old heart was all about and seek to discover what the new heart is empowering us for.
In the great pattern of the Exodus story, the first step is to accept that things could be different – the people were slaves and had a slave mindset, to them Moses says follow me, choose life, and the first thing that people have to do is change their minds. “We are not going to be slaves anymore” and they take action! A simple action of marking their lives with a cross and preparing to leave. The simple act of preparing unleavened bread and making that sacrifice and embracing the urgency, was key. It was a change of Mind. I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.
Colossians 1:21 says “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.”
Repentance changes that – it embraces the fact that God has won your freedom and now you are no longer an enemy of God. When we have made this change of mind and heart then we have denied ourself, and are ready to take up our cross and follow Jesus. ( Mark 8:34)
*Reflection*
St Francis taught that joy is to be found, not in great achievements but in being united with Christ in His suffering. Very often we want to follow Christ in order to achieve great things and be held in high esteem. But Jesus taught that when we do this, we will have received our reward in full. Rather we are to walk humbly with God and seek treasures in heaven. What does this mean for you? What stands in your way of serving God, because it will affect your comfort and ease. What challenges do you need to embrace as a way of serving Christ, in humility? What change of heart do you need in your life?
*Prayer*
Lord God give us the courage to embrace the way of the cross, that courage to seek to serve rather than to be served, to love rather than to be loved, to give rather than to receive. Help us to die to self, so that we may be raised in you. Change our self- centred desires to a desire to serve you through the way that we treat others. In the love of Christ, Amen.
Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God truly righteous and holy. (Ephesians 4:24)
