...and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Eze 36:26
I got it all figured out how God is supposed to do this! I want the quick fix, ya know?
** First God will administer a divine general anesthetic, and I'll go out laughing. Then while I'm blissfully unconscious, he'll ...
** Open me up,
** Remove the stony heart,
** Replace it with a heart of flesh, (whatever that is),
** Heal the incision, leaving no scar (of course)!
** I wake up, happily holy forevermore.
God seems to be laughing at my fantasy. Says it doesn't work that way. Something about James 1:2, and counting it all JOY when I encounter trials, knowing that these trials make the good stuff happen -- they're a necessary part of the process.
So here is how I think it really happens:
** Our stony hearts are placed upon The Rock.
** There they are reduced by the pounding of trials and adversities (and sometimes that Hebrews 12 discipline) to gravel.
** From gravel, they are reduced further, via more pounding of course (ouch! OUCH!) to sand, and from sand to dust -- ever finer and finer.
Then, once these stony hearts have been reduced to the point where it seems the smallest breeze might well blow them away ... Then, and only then, does the Creator form us a heart of flesh out of the dust, and breathe into it His own life, and we become living souls once again!
Pound away, God, pound away!
I got it all figured out how God is supposed to do this! I want the quick fix, ya know?
** First God will administer a divine general anesthetic, and I'll go out laughing. Then while I'm blissfully unconscious, he'll ...
** Open me up,
** Remove the stony heart,
** Replace it with a heart of flesh, (whatever that is),
** Heal the incision, leaving no scar (of course)!
** I wake up, happily holy forevermore.
God seems to be laughing at my fantasy. Says it doesn't work that way. Something about James 1:2, and counting it all JOY when I encounter trials, knowing that these trials make the good stuff happen -- they're a necessary part of the process.
So here is how I think it really happens:
** Our stony hearts are placed upon The Rock.
** There they are reduced by the pounding of trials and adversities (and sometimes that Hebrews 12 discipline) to gravel.
** From gravel, they are reduced further, via more pounding of course (ouch! OUCH!) to sand, and from sand to dust -- ever finer and finer.
Then, once these stony hearts have been reduced to the point where it seems the smallest breeze might well blow them away ... Then, and only then, does the Creator form us a heart of flesh out of the dust, and breathe into it His own life, and we become living souls once again!
Pound away, God, pound away!
