Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

Led by the Spirit
Katherine Philip

St. John’s MTC, NY
26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
 
As Christians, there is a lot that we can learn from the passages of Ezekiel. At the time, the people of Israel knew about the wonders of God through their beloved ancestors. They knew about God’s faithfulness throughout all trials and tribulations. They even knew that they were God’s chosen people. The people of Israel were even able to witness God’s judgment when they were taken from the promised land and made captive in the city of Babylon.
    Yet, these chosen people were lost – lost in the world of their own sin. They were exiled from God’s Kingdom and this was represented by the exile in Babylon. These people relied on themselves rather than putting their complete trust in God. Instead of working persistently to please God, they were working persistently to please themselves and man. Instead of loving God, they were loving themselves. With the exile in Babylon, it was God’s way of warning His chosen people that they were lost. However, the people of Israel simply did not comprehend this. Why? In verse 26, we are able to see that these people had a heart of stone. Hearts that were so cold and hard that no matter what God was trying to portray, it was simply not understood by the people. They were not able to receive or absorb any of these concepts.
    Similarly, we are the people of Israel when it comes to our Christian lives. When we have fallen, we are no different from the people of Israel in comparison. When tragedy strikes, our immediate response is to solve the solution in the fastest way possible. We try our best to find a way that will help us recover. However, it may not  go the way we thought it would or intended. A better solution is to place it in God's hand. We are called to place our trust in Him, to call upon His name, to lift His name on high during the best and worst of times. When we place our lives in His hands, God will place a new spirit within us. God will always fight our battles for us, big or small. As a child of God, we have to remain in Him because the most precious gift we could ever receive, the gift of eternal life, cannot be achieved on our own.

PRAYER

“Dear Father, as we conquer our day, help us to walk beside You and  to realize that  You are in control.  Create in us a clean heart and give us a heart of flesh. In Jesus’ name, Amen”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

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