Contemplative Bible Reading

Ezekiel 18:31 (New Living Translation)

31 Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel?

There is a sermon in every phrase in this sentence.

Let’s consider the second phrase and a new heart. “The heart” are the words we use to describe how we feel about something. I like this. I don’t like that. I really like this thing over here. I really, really don’t like that thing over there. We tend to move towards what we like and away from what we dislike. Nothing new here.

We should find ourselves a new heart. God implores the people to do so. Have a new heart. The new heart loves the things God wants the people to love. The new heart dislikes the things God wants the people to dislike. That is a righteous heart: one that feels about things the way God feels about things.

The new heart:

• Pushes me away from hating people
• Pushes me towards caring and acting from that care towards people
• Pushes me away from believing that things have spiritual power
• Pushes me towards believing that God can do things that make no sense and defy all the laws of observed science

I guess I could go on and on with what a new heart causes me to do. Just run through the ten commandments and I can find 20 things the new heart causes me to do. Walk through the teachings of Jesus and find hundreds of things that a new heart causes me to do.

This is quite simple. This is impossible to do without God. Please God, help me in my unbelief.