Prayer Journal
Thursday, August 10, 2000
"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people and I will be their God." Ez 11:19,20
The prophet Ezekiel, like other men of God Israel had known, was keenly aware of Israel's sin. In fact, this prophet saw a vision of God's glory departing from the Temple (chapter 10). Yet, he was reminded by God that the people were scattered only to be restored some day. This is a beautiful picture of God's "amazing" grace at work in the hearts of His people.
A heart of stone shows the impenetrable nature of man. His spirit of pride and arrogance makes for a hard surface that is anything but humble and teachable. But, even the hardest "shell" can be changed - refashioned through God's grace and mercy.
Do you feel hopeless? Do you think there is no way to recover from the problems of your past? Has your sin and self-serving life brought you to a point where you feel you are beyond salvage? Here's good news for you: You can never be so "broken" that God can't put you back together again.
All you have to do is ... Ask Him!
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ASK or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen." Eph 3:20,21
"If there ever were dreams that were lofty and noble, they were my dreams at the start;
And the hopes for life's best were the hopes that I harbored down deep in my heart;
But my dreams turned to ashes, my castles all crumbled, my fortune turned to loss,
So I wrapped it all in the rags of my life, and laid it at the cross!
Something beautiful, something good - All my confusion He understood;
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life." (1)
(1) "Something Beautiful," lyric by Gloria Gaither, music by William J. Gaither, Copyright (c) 1971 by William J. Gaither.
(2) Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society
(3) The images used herein were obtained from the Learning Company's ClickArt Christian Graphics Deluxe product, (c)1999 The Learning Company, Inc and its subsidiaries, 88 Roland Way, Novato, CA 94945 USA. All Rights Reserved.
