I can remember one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture when God says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ez. 36:26)
For a moment of bravery I ask Jesus to give me His heart. I imagine watching Him break away my stone heart and place within me a new heart. It feels strange, especially when I begin to go about my day with Someone else's heart.
Prayer seems far more natural than it has ever been. There is a new craving and urge to be near to God. It is an unusual intensity.
There are people everywhere I go, as always, but on this day I see them. I am looking at people instead of space-fillers floating around me. I see stories everywhere I go and I have thoughts and feelings very different than I am used to.
It seems that my new heart has a thing for nature and creation. When I walk around outside, I see the birds and trees and streams in a whole new fashion. There is a big breath that comes strangely natural to me, and my new heart smiles when it recognizes these things.
I have also noticed a difference in my reactions to the people I really dislike. I am all-together different with these people. It really seems inconsequential that I had once really dislike this person. It surprises me how little I care about the situations that once lead me to have such a distaste for these individuals.
Oh, and I have also noticed myself being bolder and more courageous in situations I had avoided before. This new heart really does seem almost magical. I am more tender in situations I once would have been embittered, and I am indignant in situations I once would have turned my eyes away from.
Let me try to explain the freedom I feel now. My responsibilities and all the commitments I have did not go away with the new heart, but I noticed I cling to those things much less. I feel the ability to let them go in a way that they do not hold me as much as I hold them. I am responsible, but those responsibilities do not define me nor do they confine me. Does that make sense?
At the end of the day, I come back to Jesus to return His heart. It was certainly a thrill to have had it for even a day. But event though I bring it back, I am certain I will not be the same ever again. Even for a moment, I felt what it meant to have the heart of Jesus.
