This Day in History: 0000-01-13

January 13 – Ezekiel 11:19-20 

And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new Spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God. 

I can so identify with my Lord when I read these verses from Ezekiel. I know what it is to have a deep, unfulfilled longing for a tender, responsive heart from the one I love most, and I know what it is to find only a cold, stubborn, stony heart instead. And because I understand what it is to be in that place, it absolutely breaks me to know I have caused my Lord that kind of heartache and pain. At the same time, it also exhilarates me to know, as I read this passage, that I am living in the days promised here. 

Though I have broken the heart of my God again and again, He has pursued me nonetheless. He has worked on me tirelessly, softening my stubborn heart, breaking my hard-as-stone will, and replacing my own fallen spirit with His Holy Spirit. I am so thankful that He has spent every year of my life (and will continue for as many as I live) chiseling away at anything that divides me from Him so that my heart will be singularly focused and obedient to Him. I am so unspeakably grateful to be His dearly loved daughter, and to know that for all of eternity, He is my God! 

What about you? Do you know what it is to love someone who is hard-hearted and unresponsive? Doesn’t it deepen your longing to give God your whole heart? My friend, won’t you join me in asking our Heavenly Father today to fill us with His Spirit? May He give us singleness of heart, and help us to respond to Him in obedience day in and day out for as long as we live so that we can truly be His people, and He can be our God!