No Stony Heart

There are two special people that I know read my devotions on Facebook, and I write this in honor of them today. God's power of forgiveness has done a work in both their hearts in miraculous ways, and restored a friendship that bore the worse, only to discover His best. This promise is now true in their lives—“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” (Ezekiel 36:26).

At some point in this life, someone will hurt you. They will say or do something that tears your heart into shreds. Your heart then lies in broken pieces, and you believe it will never be the same again. One of two things happen with those shreds. If your heart does not heal in the right way then those shreds form scar tissue. The result is hardness, and a stony heart which blocks not only forgiveness from you, but the healing love and freedom of the Holy Spirit in you. And the other thing? Now that choice has great promise, and brings healing. It is forgiveness. It brings joy and peace and power because you allow the Holy Spirit to flow in and mold your life! The heart that might have been stony is now soft and pliable in the hands of the Potter.

The inability to forgive is a terrible cancer. It eats at your spiritual health and ultimately destroys your relationship with God. It hardens your heart to conviction and to Christ’s promise of healing. The Holy Spirit invites you to open your heart so you might forgive. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” Paul writes (2 Corinthians 3:17). To receive forgiveness you must forgive—freely as Jesus forgave. To receive healing, you choose forgiveness instead of a hard and unyielding heart.

Jesus waits for your response. He offers hope through conviction. Satan wants you to remain wrapped up in anger and bitterness. He wants your hardened heart to grow even harder. Christ forgave you. Are you willing to offer what He has freely given? Will you actually do as He asks? Make something good come out of what is bad. Turn it around for God’s glory. Let your wall of pain down today, and allow Him to wash out the hurt, bitterness, anger, and resentment. Allow forgiveness to set you free from a stony heart.

The Lord will remove that heart of stone, and give you a heart that forgives. Once opened your heart will rejoice in its freedom. Out of your life will flow rivers or living water. You will discover that forgiveness is a mighty work of God which springs eternal in your heart.