The Spirit-filled heart
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
So my soul longs for you, O God. Psalm 42:1
Read Ezekiel 11:14–20
I stand in a different place from Israel, Israel in exile, yet I feel as though the word spoken to them still needs to be spoken to me. So much has happened that has made all the difference, and it should have made a difference to me. Israel returned from exile. They went back to the land of promise. Yet their hearts were not renewed. In that land their Messiah came to them. He lay down his life for his sheep and made them his own, intimately. He sent the very promised Spirit. He calls me his friend and he has given me what he has received from his Father. I have all this. Yet I still live as though I did not. Tonight I know that I still need to pray for that renewed heart.
Prayer
Father, in boundless love you have promised a new spirit through imparting your own Spirit, a renewed heart by sharing your own heartbeat. I have to go back so little into the events of the day to find the hardness of my own heart. I think I will always, daily, be praying for this promise to be fulfilled in me. But I place my confidence in the fact that it has been fulfilled in Jesus, the Spirit-filled man. I pray again, this day, in his name. In him I find a sure contentment.