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The Heart Must Change



Just like you, I have seen video clips or have read a plethora of responses to the alleged racial issues plaguing our country. However good and helpful some discussions, responses, and “fixes” may be, we still have those that are a bit extreme and unnecessary to bring healing.

What is the answer? What is the fix? Whether it is disbanding Police Departments, bringing down Confederate (or any) monuments and flags, or trying to “rewrite history” to make us feel better, it is still a momentary solution to an ongoing problem.

All the laws of Country, State, County and City are still not enough to deter crime, hate, prejudice and other forms of lawlessness. Sadly, we don’t need any more laws. What we have in place, now, is enough to cover everything we need for a just society.

So, then what’s the issue? Jeremiah 17:9, ““The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” What we have is a heart problem. The Hebrew word for “wicked” actually means “sick” with the emphasis on the sickness being an incurable sickness. Incurable from a human perspective!

That means that new laws, regulations and legislation normally won’t be worth any more than the paper they are printed on. That means that taking down statues, removing flags, defunding the Police, and renaming streets and military installations isn’t going to fix or solve the real issue.

Yes, changing laws and taking down statues may be a quick-fix to our emotions by making us feel better that we “did something” to curb racism or to appease the issue at hand, but all we really did was stick a band-aid over a cut artery in hopes that it will stop the bleeding and allow the wound to heal.

We all know that a single band-aid is not going to hold or stop the bleeding. Band-aids were not designed to do that. All it will take to rip off the band-aid to get the wound bleeding again, is for the “next issue” to rise up and present itself to get everyone all wound up. Once wound up, the various emotions will start the cycle of demonstrations, marches, rioting and protests all over again.

The solution….the “fix” is that our hearts must change first. Could we pray the words of Ezekiel 36:26, “ 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.” We cannot change on our own. We must have God’s help. Jesus must be Lord of our life. We must allow the Holy Spirit within us to prune and change our hearts into Christlikeness.

We know that the heart is the starting place for spiritual life because of what the Bible says about God's actions toward the human heart. In order to get people to desire what He desires, God must "remove the heart of stone" and replace it with "a heart of flesh."

This is a humbling reality, and very difficult for many of us to accept. We want to believe that people, in their hearts, are essentially good and that they must be coerced or victimized or provoked into bad behavior. However, Jesus said the opposite: that sins like evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness, actually originate in the heart of man (Mark 7:21-23).

Humanity has a heart problem, and needs a heart transplant. There is some residual pain following this heart transplant. When God spoke through Ezekiel, He said that after the heart of stone had been replaced by the heart of flesh, His people would look back on the evil things they did and be ashamed and sickened by what they had done.

But repentance is only possible through this change of heart. A person must come into the light of Jesus Christ in order to see what was hidden, and sometimes the hidden things are hard to look at. I, too, understand that “calling it like it is” can be shocking and even embarrassing as we begin to realize we were even capable of such sinfulness.

But God is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from everything that our new hearts are not proud of and have sinfully done against God. If we don't come into the light, and admit that we have sinned, there is no possible healing (1 John 1:5-10).

Bottom line is this: If we don’t get our hearts right, then we will never be right. Are we easily irritated and angered? Then our heart isn’t right! If we see a person of another color or ethnic origin and feel a seething disgust welling up inside of us, then our heart isn’t right. If we can see a person in need or in trouble and feel no pity or need to assist, then our heart isn’t right. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

We must surrender our hearts to Jesus Christ and bow them to His Lordship. Period. Not only do we surrender our heart (and life) to Jesus, but we must continually allow the work of the Holy Spirit to help us mature into godly people who are more like Jesus than like the world. It takes a lifetime. It is a daily choice to “surrender” and live for Jesus. It won’t happen overnight. But, we must willingly work at it and live like it. Always.

Bringing down statues, re-naming things and burning down and looting stores won’t fix the situation. Passing legislation and even laws won’t fix the heart either. One thing…or should I say, one person, only, can fix the heart issues….and his name is Jesus.


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