New Heart, New Life

Today's reading: Mark 7:1-23

"For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” - Mark 7:21-23 ESV

Behavior modification: we've all tried it. We ask this question over and over: "How can I control myself so that I can become who I want to be?" Oh, we have tried many things to tame our desires. We engage in intense diets to try and curb our carb consumption. We put blockers on our computers to prevent us from looking at explicit content. We delete our social media in hopes that we'll stop comparing ourselves with others. We seemed to have tried everything.

If Jesus were here in the flesh (like he was), how would he respond to this question of reigning in our sin life?

He would probably tell us we are focusing on the wrong thing. I mean, the Jewish Religious Leaders took behavior modification to a new level, and yet Jesus called them "sons of hell." (see Matthew 23:15).

Jesus would say that the problem isn't our behavior (though it gets us into trouble). He would say that the issue is the thing that is driving our actions: our heart. If we deal with our hearts, we will, in turn, deal with what we do.

What does that look like? Well, it is similar to surgery. One that only God can perform.

Ezekiel said it well when he wrote, "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-21)

Go ahead and be so bold as to ask God to give you a new heart today.