Ezekiel 36:26 English Standard Version (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Our closing comment yesterday was: “When we gave our hearts to Christ that became the center of right choices.” Giving our hearts to Christ and having the indwelling Spirit creates a new heart that is no longer hardened. This new heart is one that loves as God loves. That is how it can become the seat of right choices.

Hebrews 3:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV) do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,     on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

The wilderness journey was one where they followed God by cloud during the day and fire by night. They did not have a changed heart. All their choices were mental and influenced by the flesh. They saw what God did for forty years and yet all the generations that entered into the promised land were born in the wilderness, the rest died there.

We were lucky enough to be born after the work of the cross of Christ and have the opportunity to believe and receive according to God’s promises. One promise is that Christ would rule and reign in the hearts of those who love Him.

Colossians 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

We are distracted by things in the world and in so doing the peace of Christ takes second place in our minds. Distractions are not sin unless they cause us to act in a manner that interferes with His ruling in our hearts. This is why it is important to renew our minds to learn what Christ is doing in our hearts that now belong to Him.

I can confess what distracts me but each of us has to decide for ourselves what it is that pulls our focus away from Christ and onto things of the world.

For me it is world events, politics, economy, advertising, and the actions of the inconsiderate.

We are not to be ignorant of all these things but we are not to be controlled by them.

Hebrews 12:3-6 English Standard Version

Do Not Grow Weary

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

We all struggle but realize we do not struggle alone. It is not that we should or could take any comfort in the struggles of our brothers and sisters in Christ but rather that Christ Himself has gone through worse than we have and knows how to help us win our struggles.

We use words like “die to self” and end up making a vow to do better like it is as simple as a New Year’s resolution. That is a recipe for failure.

At the core of all change for what is good and right is the love of God for His children. This discipline spoken of here is the correction of failed behavior. His love needs to be returned with gratitude, submission and faithfulness. We will not come to the point of avoiding sin behaviors without loving God for all that He has done for us and in us.

We worry more about what we see as our problems rather than listening to what the Lord has to say to us in the moment. He leads us in paths of righteousness but if we do not listen, believe and obey, we will find ourselves off the path.

One of the reasons we covered judgment first is to come to that point where we are listening to the Lord rather than looking around to see what everyone else is doing. Those will become distractions from listening to God who abides in our hearts.

When we gave our hearts to Christ that became the center of right choices.