Hello my dear LR friends! After summer busyness, we're back for a new (school) year of LR! I don't know about you all, but I love the beginning of school - it's always associated with new friends, new (and cute!) school supplies, new activities, and just general new-goodness!
Right now, I've just started my block on cardiology - so you can imagine the heart has been on my mind a lot! I came across this verse in my bible study last night and thought it had a lot of interesting applications (esp. in light of all I've been learning!) so I wanted to share!
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all of your impurities and all of 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
When I came home to study after bible study, I came across a condition called "stone heart" in my notes. So I hope this doesn't get too science-y on all of you, but learning more about the condition really helped me to shed light on the verse! "Stone heart" would happen during open heart surgery when the surgeon put the heart on a cardiac bypass machine. Your heart needs energy (ATP) to move it from its' contracted to relaxed state. During surgery though, hearts would often run out of this energy and get stuck contracted and immobile, just like a stone!
Just like your heart needs to be plugged into the body to function correctly and keep it's energy up, we need to be connected to Christ to make sure that we maintain compassion and "hearts of flesh" for other people. I don't know about you, but when I'm tired and far from Christ, the last thing I want to do is be understanding towards others. We need that spiritual energy that Christ's provides us to make sure that we can keep "pumping out" demonstrations of His love and kindness. How wonderful is it that Christ promises to be the "master heart surgeon" and provide us with this sensitive heart towards others! I also love that God also promises to give us a spirit that makes us eager to follow his decrees, something that I always feel like there is no way I can achieve on my own.
The heart of flesh the Lord gives us is a wonderful blessing, but hearts of flesh are also more prone to pain and damage than hearts of stone. I mention this not to be a debbie-downer, but rather to remind myself that having compassion on others is not always easy - it puts us in a position to have ourselves taken advantage of and hurt. God doesn't promise us not to get hurt when He gives us hearts of flesh, but He does promise to dwell inside our hearts and to remove all other idols so He can be the center of it.
Today, my challenge for all of us is to think about someone or something our hearts have been hardened to, and to pray that the Lord would take our "stone hearts" and give us ones of kindness and compassion!
When I came home to study after bible study, I came across a condition called "stone heart" in my notes. So I hope this doesn't get too science-y on all of you, but learning more about the condition really helped me to shed light on the verse! "Stone heart" would happen during open heart surgery when the surgeon put the heart on a cardiac bypass machine. Your heart needs energy (ATP) to move it from its' contracted to relaxed state. During surgery though, hearts would often run out of this energy and get stuck contracted and immobile, just like a stone!
Just like your heart needs to be plugged into the body to function correctly and keep it's energy up, we need to be connected to Christ to make sure that we maintain compassion and "hearts of flesh" for other people. I don't know about you, but when I'm tired and far from Christ, the last thing I want to do is be understanding towards others. We need that spiritual energy that Christ's provides us to make sure that we can keep "pumping out" demonstrations of His love and kindness. How wonderful is it that Christ promises to be the "master heart surgeon" and provide us with this sensitive heart towards others! I also love that God also promises to give us a spirit that makes us eager to follow his decrees, something that I always feel like there is no way I can achieve on my own.
The heart of flesh the Lord gives us is a wonderful blessing, but hearts of flesh are also more prone to pain and damage than hearts of stone. I mention this not to be a debbie-downer, but rather to remind myself that having compassion on others is not always easy - it puts us in a position to have ourselves taken advantage of and hurt. God doesn't promise us not to get hurt when He gives us hearts of flesh, but He does promise to dwell inside our hearts and to remove all other idols so He can be the center of it.
Today, my challenge for all of us is to think about someone or something our hearts have been hardened to, and to pray that the Lord would take our "stone hearts" and give us ones of kindness and compassion!
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