Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from Natalie Grant singing … Clean … poignantly singing of how we Christians are given a new, Spirit-cleansed, heart.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ezekiel 36:26 [NLT] … 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
… God’s plan to clean the heart of His chosen people … to put a new heart/Spirit in them.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ezekiel 36:24-27 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s prophesy, thru Ezekiel, of God’s heart restoration plan for the hard-hearted people of God.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 51:10 [NLT] … 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
… A repentant King David, singing his prayer for a new heart with a new Spirit.
Reference Passage : … Psalm 139:23-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… David’s song which should be the song of every believer, every day … for the Lord to search our hearts and point us in the way of righteousness.
Reference Passage : … Romans 6:4b [NLT] … 4 …. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
… Anyone who received, by faith, Christ as Lord, will live a new life in Him.
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 5:17 [NLT] … 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
… God’s plan for redemption and cleansing is accomplished for anyone who belongs to Christ, receiving a new, cleansed, heart.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Adam Holz, uses a personal reflection of his father receiving a new lease on life thru triple-bypass surgery, illustrating what happens when anyone truly receives a new heart thru repentance in faith. The ODB author wrote … The news was grim. My father had been having chest pains, so his doctor ordered a test to peer into his heart. The result? Blockage found in three arteries. Triple-bypass surgery was scheduled for February 14. My dad, though anxious, saw that date as a hopeful sign: “I’m getting a new heart for Valentine’s Day!” And he did! The surgery went perfectly, restoring life-giving blood flow to his struggling heart—his “new” heart.
And I remember when my dad, at age 72, wrote me a letter, telling me of surrendering his heart to Christ. And within weeks I noted a whole new man. Yes, my dad still had many physical maladies; but he had a whole new attitude about life. Gone were the racial jokes and dirty language I used to see in him. Gone was his anger at having to take care of my mom who had heart disease. He was a new man in Christ, with the type of heart described by Ezekiel, David, and Paul in the Scriptures above.
And I remember what happened to me when I surrendered my own heart to Christ some years before that, allowing me to experience what Natalie Grant so beautifully sings in the linked song; and what Paul wrote about in Romans 6:4 and 2Cor. 5:17.
And now, everyday, I compulsively pray the same prayer that King David sung in Psalm 139:23-24 … for my Lord to create a new heart in me, cleansed by His Holy Spirit. And oh, how I pray that for all reading here.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for giving Your faithful a new, … CLEAN… , heart.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to pray, with a repentant heart, for our Lord to clean our hearts completely thru His Spirit. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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