God Changes Hearts

When grace happens, we receive not a nice compliment from God but a new heart. Give your heart to Christ, and He returns the favor.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.” — Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV)

Some years ago I underwent a heart procedure. My heartbeat had the regularity of a telegraph operator sending Morse code. Fast, fast fast. Slooooow. After several failed attempts to restore healthy rhythm with medication, my doctor decided I should have a catheter ablation. The plan went like this: a cardiologist would insert two cables in my heart via a blood vessel. One was a camera; the other was an ablation tool. To ablate is to burn. Yes, burn, cauterize, singe, brand.

If all went well, the doctor, to use his coinage, would destroy the “misbehaving” parts of my heart. As I was being wheeled into surgery, he asked if I had any final questions. (Not the best choice of words.) I tried to be witty.

“You’re burning the interior of my heart, right?”

“Correct.”

“You intend to kill the misbehaving cells, yes?”

“That is my plan.”

“As long as you are in there, could you take your little blowtorch to some of my greed, selfishness, superiority, and guilt?”

He smiled and answered, “Sorry, that’s out of my pay grade.”

Indeed it was, but it’s not out of God’s. He is in the business of changing hearts.

We would be wrong to think this change happens overnight. But we would be equally wrong to assume change never happens at all. It may come in fits and spurts — an “aha” here, a breakthrough there. But it comes.

The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared. —Titus 2:11 (NKJV)

The floodgates are open, and the water is out. You just never know when grace will seep in.

Could you use some?

Excerpted with permission from Grace Happens Here by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

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Your Turn

Could you use some grace today? Are you ready to give God your heart and trust Him to create a new one within you? Come join the conversation on our blog! We want to hear from you about God’s floodgate of grace! ~ Devotionals Daily