June 9 | Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 32-33; John 18:19-40

Heart Surgery

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. Ezekiel 36:26

Some years ago, after exchanging heated words, Carolyn and I resolved our conflict through compassion and love for each other. I confessed my wrongdoing, and she prayed for me, referencing Ezekiel 36:26: “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.” I sensed that God was conducting a form of spiritual heart surgery on me, taking away my fears and bitterness as He enfolded me in His love.

God delights for us to engage with the Scriptures as I did back then, but it’s important to note the passage’s original context. Ezekiel spoke on God’s behalf to His people with the promise that He would cleanse them. Why? “It is not for your sake . . . I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name” (v. 22). God would do His purifying work among His people so that all the nations would revere Him and know that He is God.

God works His purposes in our lives not only to help us flourish and grow, but so we would bring Him honour. Even as He gave the Israelites the promise of a new heart and a new spirit, so through the inward work of the Holy Spirit, God replaces our cold and hardened hearts with those that receive and share His love and life.

By Amy Boucher Pye

REFLECT & PRAY

How have you experienced God’s ‘heart surgery’? How have others noticed the changes that He’s brought about in your life?

God of all life, thank You for changing me, for forming in me a new self that’s rooted in You. Please pour out Your love on me today.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon (Ezekiel 1:1), ministered to the exiled Jewish community during and after the destruction of Jerusalem. God promised restoration and a bright future to His people if they’d repent of their covenantal unfaithfulness. He’d forgive them and transform them into a holy nation. Only with a new heart and a new spirit would they be able to honour God (36:26-28; see 11:19-20). This new heart and spirit are central to God’s redemption plan.

The prophet Jeremiah also prophesied of God’s new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. And Jesus spoke of “the new covenant in [His] blood” (Luke 22:20) hours before He died on the cross. He’s the mediator of the new covenant through “the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness” (Hebrews 12:24 NLT). And He alone can change our hearts.

K. T. Sim

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