I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)
The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, is best known for his song that we sing every New Year called “Auld Lang Syne.” He wrote in a Scottish dialect that even a Scotsman would have difficulty understanding.
Robert Burns was a religious man and an incurable romantic. He gave himself to a lifestyle of wine, women, and song. And in one of his poems, Burns lamented the sair ficht (sore fact) that his lifestyle “petrifies the feeling.” It reduced the capacities of his soul.
As a young man, Burns savored life deeply. Love, joy, and life coursed through him. But gradually, he noticed his own capacity for love diminished. He could no longer feel what he wanted to feel. What he had once tasted was now beyond his reach. That’s what sin does.
Sin shrivels the soul. It “petrifies” the feeling. More than losing your capacity to love God, sin reduces your capacity to love anything! All the capacities of the soul are impaired by sin. It blunts the mind, saps the will, sears the conscience, and distorts the memory.
Pride shrivels your capacity to worship. Greed strangles compassion in your heart. Lust eats away at your ability to love. Anger diminishes your ability to fulfill the will of God. So what hope is there? What can you do when sin has shriveled your soul?
Take God up on one of His greatest promises: “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez. 36:26). God says, “Your problem is that the capacities of your soul have been petrified. You have a heart of stone. But I will give you a new heart.”
Have you asked God to do this for you?
