Isn’t it interesting that mostly throughout Scripture we are admonished to subdue the flesh – to put aside fleshly desires, flee the lusts of the flesh. Yet their is one place in us where Our Lord actually desires a constitution of flesh – – our hearts.

The very heart that as Jeremiah laments, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9.

The two things seem paradoxical. That our God who calls us away from the [mis]deeds of corrupt flesh, would desire a heart made of flesh. But it isn’t contradictory at all if what we see that the default condition of the heart is actually that of stone – not flesh. And it’s the stony condition of our hearts which produces the undesirable deeds of the flesh. The Lord desires to reverse that dynamic – transforming and transplanting our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh, surrendered to Him, and perpetually curing the sin-sick flesh and reversing its nature – it’s natural tendency toward sin. His Word says:

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the WHOLE (the entire apparatus, stony chambers and all). They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.” – Psalm 119: 1-3

There verse presents a lot for us to unpack. But let’s focus on the the connection between seeking after God with our entire heart, and the outcome it produces. “They also do no iniquity: they walk in his way.” Does this mean that having yielded our lead heart, that we cease to falter altogether. Well, no – not exactly, at least not right away. We still live in the now and the not yet. He has begun a good work in us, and He will see it through to completion (Philippians 1:6). This implies a process. Meanwhile the benefit is two-fold. We’re afforded a tremendous grace in that He sees us/regards us as, and receives us as righteous by His righteouness and by His mercy (“They are undefiled in the way … they also do no iniquity”). And 2) There’s been a reversal of our tendencies; now we’re motivated to keep His testimonies, do no iniquity, and walk in his ways. We’re to trust His totally bi-lateral process.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26

So … how do we trust? Well, He says that He gives us both a new heart AND a new spirit. The dispensation of a new spirit is more grace. Helping us to trust. I think its this renewed spirit that’s sensitive to His voice. It is agency – enabling us to hear Him, know Him, and follow his lead.

“.. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10: 3-4

Wow. Again, so much more to be drawn from that text, but since He has given us a new heart and quickened our spirit – even granting us a new spirit to hear his voice, what is our response to be? What does He expect of us?

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Hebrews 3:15

Paul might’ve stopped at “… do not harden your hearts.” But the warning against rebellion in general and against a kind of apocalyptic rebellion in particular persists through the ages; as we see the byproduct of stony hearts and their consequences unfolding all around us. Their convergence, collusion and conspiracy is undeniable, yet not entirely inescapable if we heed.

Image by Angelfeather Art