ROOTED - Friday, May 22, 2026
Ezekiel 36:25-27
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean
from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will
cleanse you. 26 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. 27 And
I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules.
Reflection: Transformation of the Heart
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro
What an extraordinary and beautiful passage
of scripture!!!!! Tomorrow’s reading will deal with much the same theme… but I
love the image here. First, notice that Ezekiel points out that we are (all of
us) unclean. At least that is how we began this journey of life, in
“uncleannesses.” Our “idols” have been part of the problem! We have been in a
struggle, from day one, to put away the idols from our heart and worship the
one true God. But that darn “heart of stone” was a problem well beyond our
control. What a vivid picture of the deep problem inside of us. It is a heart
problem through and through. Our dead heart of stone was an idolatrous rock.
But God has always meant to wash us clean. He has offered his “heart
washing ministry” to all mankind as a gift! Because God’s heartbeat is to
cleanse us and “give us a new heart and a new spirit.” A beating and
living heart, as opposed to the dead and hardened heart we had before we met
Christ! Once we met Jesus he performed a miracle, did he not!? He gave us a
heart of flesh and gave us his Spirit to quicken us (I love that King James way
of saying it… that is, to “make us alive”). Now, what was impossible before has
now become miraculously possible… to walk in God’s statutes. What, then, might
we take away from Ezekiel’s words today? This: if you have been given a new
heart and the Spirit of God resides in you, for God’s sake… live like it.
Lord God, glory to your name for all that you have done for us!
You have made us alive, given us a new heart, and made it possible for us to
live rightly before you.