Morning

December 23

Ezekiel 11:19-20 ¹⁹I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. ²⁰Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel saw another vision of God. The predictions of doom were so dark that he cried out asking if any would survive. There were two separate times in which Babylon came and took people into captivity. This prophesy came in between those times. The LORD said that He was the sanctuary of those already in exile.

Then the LORD gave him one of the first promises of restoration in the book of Ezekiel. God promised to give them an undivided heart and a new spirit. God had just shown Ezekiel how corrupt their hearts had become. Receiving a new spirit was the only hope for their future. Their main problem was that their hearts were divided between Jehovah and other gods. The only way that can be dealt with is to have a new heart. The heart they had then was too hard. They did not have the tenderness of God's heart toward them. If we could but see how tender and patient God's heart is toward us, it would help to give us an undivided heart.

The new heart is that of the new creation birthed in us when we come to Jesus asking for life. He takes out our old stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh. Then, in tenderness toward His Spirit within us, we live the Spirit behind the Law. We become His children and can call Him our God. Is your heart tender toward His Spirit? Or is it divided between Him and the world, like Judah of old? If you recognize it is divided, ask for revelation of His tender heart toward you. Ask for that miraculous work of a spiritual heart transplant.

Meditation: God longs for your heart to be undivided.