A New Heart

A New Heart

Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit.

Ezekiel 18:31, NIV

I REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I EVER STOLE ANYTHING. I was thirteen years old. There was a cassette tape I wanted at a record store. I decided to steal it. As soon as I made that decision, my heart started racing, my palms became sweaty, and my head started pounding. I became a nervous, guilty wreck. But I went for it. I looked around, grabbed the cassette tape, and put it in my pocket. And at that exact moment the theme song from Miami Vice (which was a popular show at the time) started playing on the store’s sound system. I freaked out. I expected Crockett and Tubbs to come running in to bust me. But they didn’t. I casually walked out of the store, and I got away with it. I still was flustered, and I felt pretty guilty, but I got away with it.

Not too much later, I tried to steal something again, and it wasn’t that scary. Afterward I felt only a twinge of guilt.

Soon I was stealing things every time I went to the mall without even giving it a second thought. Guilt? Not a bit.

Hard Hearts

The Bible says that we have a heart problem. We have heart disease, and it’s terminal. The Bible refers to it as a hardness of heart.^a A hard heart is a heart that’s cold, unresponsive, independent, and rebellious toward God.

How do we contract this disease? Little by little.

It starts when we learn, at an early age, to say no to God. It doesn’t have to be an aggressive, outright no. Just ignoring God functions effectively as a no. Each time we say no, our hearts become less tender; it’s like a steel layer of resistance slowly encases our hearts. Little by little we’re less sensitive to God’s voice, it’s easier to say no, and we feel less guilt over our sin. Soon, sins we never could have imagined committing can become second nature, and God is no longer on our radar.

Transplant

Hardness of heart is life’s most fatal disease, but fortunately, God has a cure. Turns out our hearts are so diseased that heart treatments are not enough to solve our problem. What we desperately need is a heart transplant. “Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit.”^b

We need new hearts, and that’s what God offers us. He promises, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 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. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”^c A new heart that’s soft, loving, and responsive to God replaces the old, hard heart. God wants to make you a new you, and he starts by giving you a new heart.

That may sound like it’s straight out of a fairy tale, but it’s true. God really changes people, and the transformation begins with their hearts. You see it in people in the Bible, like Paul, who went from an angry Christian-killer to a loving Christian. He was a new person with a new heart. You see it in people like me. I’m not perfect, but I am a completely different person from the one I was the day before I put my faith in Jesus. Ask anyone who knew me!

Guard

There’s a guy I go to lunch with once in a while who is so wise that I want to write down just about everything he says. He’ll be talking, and I’ll be thinking, Wow, I really want to write that down. It is so wise. I want to remember it. But I think it would be weird to take notes while we’re eating lunch. I’d probably look silly. But it’s so good! But I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable. Shoot! I’ve missed what he’s been saying because I’ve been thinking about taking notes. Wait, do I have lettuce in my teeth?^d

Can you imagine getting advice from not just a wise person, but from perhaps the wisest person who ever lived? And what if, in the midst of giving you advice, he suddenly said, “Above all else . . .” What? The wisest person ever is giving you his wisest advice? It’s definitely time to take notes!

The king of wisdom, Solomon, wrote the majority of the book of Proverbs in the Bible. It’s a book of wisdom. In this book there is one line where he says, “above all else.” I’m going to show it to you. You might want to take notes. “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”^e

So let’s say you’ve made the decision to put your faith in Jesus and to get a heart transplant from God. That’s great. But you’re not done being concerned about your heart yet. You can stop worrying about your heart when you get to heaven. For now, you need to guard your new heart.

The problem in your past is that your heart became increasingly hard every time you said no to God. Then you received a new heart, but your new heart will also become increasingly hard every time you say no to God.

There’s a book in the New Testament called Hebrews that is almost entirely devoted to warning believers about the dangers of letting their new hearts grow cold and hard toward God again.

One time the church I was leading was going through a challenging time. We needed new staff but couldn’t find the right people, our offerings were down, and we faced all kinds of other issues. I found myself stressed out and worrying constantly. One night it culminated in losing a lot of sleep.

The next morning I got up and did my daily Bible study. My reading was in Hebrews 3, which warns about having “a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”^f And it was like I heard God asking me, “Vince, have I always been faithful? Can you believe in me, in who I am, not just in what you see me doing?” And I said, “Yes, God, I can.” And he was like, “All right then—let’s do this.”

It’s so easy to get into a tailspin of unbelief.

I need to guard my heart.

You need to guard your heart.

You can trust God. You can believe in him, in who he is, even when you can’t see what he’s doing.

And when he asks you to do something, always say yes.

Now What?

• Read Hebrews 3:7-15.
• The way our hearts grow hard is by ignoring or saying no to God when he speaks to us. What is something God has told you to do (either in black and white in the Bible or with a personal whisper) that you have ignored or refused? Now that you realize that your “no” is not isolated but contributes to the condition of your heart, why don’t you say yes right now? What will that yes look like for you?
• The Bible says we lack wisdom because we don’t ask God for it.^g Ask God to give you wisdom, specifically to make the kind of choices that will allow you to guard your heart.