I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel 36:25-27
Ezekiel 36:25-27
These verses are so profound. They speak of God's renewal and point to a time when God's Spirit would fall on all flesh. We are now living in that time! It may be easy to take it for granted, but in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was given only sparingly to those who were assigned special tasks. Now, He is poured out on all who ask. (Luke 11:13, Acts 2:38).
God's concern here is also to rid us of our idols. We may not have statues made of wood or silver and gold, but as surely as we have a sinful nature we will tend to make idols and gods of 'things' in our lives. It might be a relationship, a possession, food, drink, money or a job; the list is endless and personal to each one of us. Notice in these verses that the solution to the problem lies in the changing of our hearts. When God's Spirit comes into our lives, our focus changes and we are aware of His Presence. We see more clearly what the important thing is and suddenly it is easier to loosen our grip on those treasured things that distract us from Him. Come Holy Spirit!
Comments
This is a great theme to explore further!
It contains hope:0)
Thanks be to God:0D
Blessings to you today!
Suzy
Susan
Yes, Praise God and thank Him for his Holy Spirit and that he gave us a new heart.
I learned some time ago, with reference to idols, that we can also make the mistake of thinking of God in our own ways. In other words, we can make the mistake of making God, so to speak, in the image that we want Him to be, thereby practising idolatry.
The only way to not do that is to know God intimately through His Word and constant fellowship with Him in prayer.
Shalom.
I was struck with this thought in reading: "...and gives meaning to all those things in our lives." Suddenly, we realize all aspects of our lives are blessings from the Lord and our actions should be service to Him. Without Him we have nothing and are nothing. With our heart fully guided, everything we do is in His service, even if it is seemingly mundane work in our trade or profession, and every interaction with others a message of love.
Peace!
Sidharth
It is true, that blogging is very distracting from other, more important things!!! Like reading the bible.... I am sure God is pleased with you.
"Before the Throne of God above..."
This is our favorite Christian 'song', so I played it for my husband as he leaves tomorrow on ministry to pastor's on the tiny island of Micronesia.
I also identified with your Christmas Day comments. If you are interested and have the time, I posted a poem on my blog about those sentiments. I am adding you to my regular reading list. (Please ignore the nonsense stuff about chickens on my blog. I try to do fun stuff and then drop a seed or too.)