Got a New Heart?

Imagine coming upon a homeless man eating from the trash. What would be more effective - to tell him of the dangers of eating trash or treating him to the nearest buffet? The good news of the Gospel is not “Stop sinning!” but “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!” (Psalm 34:8) Grace is God’s gift of a new heart for Himself that frees us from the bondage of sin. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…" (Ezekiel 36:26) Our heart’s desire is to live…really live, not merely exist. Augustine wrote; “God made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.” Yet, we keep looking for life in all the wrong places - people, activities and things. God repeatedly calls after us when we are headed in the wrong direction (sin) and need to turn back to Him (repent), but quite often, we stubbornly keep going our own way. Eventually we find ourselves caught in a rut of mediocrity wondering where we went wrong. The Bible tells us to “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) Experiencing what Augustine called “sovereign joy” in God is what delivers us from the inferior pleasures of sin unto abundant life. John Eldredge shares about browsing through a bookstore and coming upon the following advice in a book by Gil Bailie: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” He then writes, “I set the volume down without turning another page and walked out of that bookstore to find a life worth living.” “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) Follow your new heart, Steve