And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. {Ezekiel 11:19-20}
God does all things. Unless He changes us from the inside out we can never please Him. Often times we struggle trying to please God, only to end up feeling like we can never ever measure up, and we end up wanting to give up. The problem is we’re not involving Him in our struggle. We take it upon ourselves to try to please Him. We’re not asking Him for help at all. We’re not telling Him, “Lord I need Your help, please help me to please You. Give me the desire everyday to please You and follow You. Make this path easy for me.” We don’t think about breathing because it’s automatic. It’s easy. That’s how living for God should be, something that becomes a part of us, something we cannot live without. It becomes something we want to do, something easy and attainable, not something impossible. It should not be hard and make us feel wretched and miserable. It should be something we want to do all the time. Jesus tells us in His word:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. {Matthew 11:29-30}
When we learn who Jesus is, when we’re getting Him involved in our struggle to please Him, His yoke will become easy and His burden will become light. When we learn who He is, we will come to realize that this is what we want to do after all: pleasing God, wanting God, and loving God, because He makes it easy.
If it’s too hard we’re not going to do it. If we don’t desire it, we’re not going to do it. That’s why God had to make this decision to give His people, “one heart” and to put a “new spirit” within them, so that their hearts will not be stony or hardened anymore. But it will be a heart of flesh, tenderhearted, easily entreated by God. It will be pliable, bendable, easily responding to God. He said that way His people will walk in His statues and His ordinances and do them. They will be His people and He will be their God. Unless God does it, it’s never going to happen. He has to make obeying Him and loving Him possible for us. The Bible states that the flesh is enmity or an enemy to God. It doesn’t want the things of God. But God made a way at the cross for us. He died for our sins and gave His life for us. Through crying out to Him, asking for His grace and forgiveness and repentance, we can bring God into our lives and be filled with His power. He will fill us with His Holy Spirit when we ask Him everyday to give us His Spirit, and will make us want to live for Him. Don’t just ask one time and that’s it. Ask God everyday for the power of His Spirit to help us live for Him. Pleasing Him will then become possible. His Spirit will deal with us to come to Him and spend time with Him. And when He deals with us and we humble ourselves before Him, He responds to us with more in-filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then gives us the power to please Him. We end up doing what God wants for us to do, because He sets us free to live for Him. He gives us the desire to live for Him. He makes all things possible for us. We end up wanting to follow Him and please Him, and turn away from the carnal things of this world. Jesus Christ makes this possible for us when we humble ourselves before Him, because on our own we could never do it.
Now that His Spirit is upon us, He will deal with us and show us what we need to do. We don’t need to wonder what we’re supposed to do everyday in our relationship with Him. He will show us. Our part is to respond to His dealings with us, because the flesh is still going to want to fight us over our desire for God. Our hearts might have softened now before God, but that doesn’t mean our flesh will not fight against God. Satan is going to snare us and tempt us, and use our flesh to bring us away from God. That’s why we need to respond to the Lord when He deals with us and bring our flesh to submit to His will. Though it’s hard at first, when we submit ourselves to God, and resist the desire of the flesh and the desire of the enemy against us, we will overcome when we call upon Him. When we call out to the Lord to help us to submit to Him, He will help us. Calling on Him in our everyday struggle of trying to please Him is the key to overcoming. The Bible tells us,
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. {James 4:7}
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. {Psalm 50:15}
We could never do it on our own. We need Jesus. Jesus is the only one who overcame Satan and the principalities of this world at the cross. He overcame and triumphed at the cross. He is our only way to pleasing God. He has come for this very reason – to be our help in pleasing God. If we could please God on our own then God wouldn’t have needed to send His Son at the cross to die for our sins. Because we cannot and do not have the power God did it for us through His precious body, Jesus Christ, overcoming the flesh and this world for us.
Satan is out there to lie to us, to discourage us, and to make us feel unworthy of God’s presence. He will tell us lies so that we end up doubting God’s love for us. Even when we want God and desire God, Satan will do everything in his power to keep us away from God. He will bring trials, temptations, disappointments, and all kinds of things to hurt us and offend us away from God. We need to fight against Satan simply by always calling on Jesus to help us, submitting to the will of God, and bringing our hearts to respond to Him. He is our help now. We’re not alone anymore. We have the Lord to respond to us when we cry out to Him. Though we go through trials and temptations and discouragements, we also come to see that our God is faithful in His love for us. We come to understand through His word and through the Holy Spirit that He’s given to us, that we’re not alone in this fight to please God. He’s given us His Holy Spirit. He’s here to help us and keep us, and bring us through the heartaches and sorrows and disappointments of life. Through Jesus Christ we will overcome and we will please God. We just need to call on Him.
Truly God does all things. We cannot be saved by our own effort and volition. We need God to save us and help us. We need Him to fill us with His Spirit and change our hearts and mend it. We need Him to fill us with His love and forgiveness. We need Him to show us that we are loved and accepted by Him. Then we can rise up from all our pain and sorrow, from all our heartaches and tears, and love Him. We love Him because He’s been so good to us, and because He’s been so faithful in His love for us. He does all things for us to make it possible for us to love Him back. He softens our hearts and takes the hardened and stony heart away from us. God does all things because all the glory belongs to Him. Without Him we are nothing.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. {John 15:5}
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. {Colossians 1:17}
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. {Isaiah 43:11}
Prayer
Lord Jesus I thank You Father with all of my heart for Your grace and mercy upon my life today. I thank You that You never ever change and will never ever give up in Your love for me. As long as I continue to believe in Your love for me and call upon You for help and forgiveness and grace, You will come through for me.
I pray Lord Jesus for Your continued dealings upon my soul today. Help me to hear Your voice and follow You. Help me to respond to Your dealings in my heart and obey You. Help me to know You more Lord Jesus, give me more of Your Spirit. Without You Lord I cannot please You or live for You. I am lost and nothing without You. I need You everyday. Please fill me with Your love and save me. I ask for all these things in Your most wonderful name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
