The Heart's Response – Awakening to Grace
Closing out our first (short) week in this Lenten journey with the Wesleys, let’s hear more words from Charles, who wrote this in a hymn called O For a Heart to Praise My God in 1742:
"Almighty God of truth and love,
In me thy power exert;
The mountain from my soul remove,
The hardness from my heart.”
Change is Tough
We spent time examining our hearts this week, and I wonder if you’ve realised that the heart can be stubborn! It can be resistant to change, and to grace!
You identify some things in your heart you want to be rid of, and you repent, and decide to fast to get closer to God and deny yourself, but very soon you realise how difficult it is to actually do that. Maybe you’ve already given up on the fast, because you gave in to your cravings.
Friends, get back up and restart, would you!? Yes, your heart may be stubborn, but persevere. Listen to this promise from God in 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."
Could it be that this Lenten journey is the time God has chosen to give you this new heart, and to remove your heart of stone?
In this hymn Charles Wesley, a few years after his conversion, asks God to remove the hardness from his heart. He pleads with God to exert His power and love to remove the mountain of sin and the hardness from his heart. Is that your cry? Or have you already given up and gone back to your status quo, your ordinary mediocre walk with God, where it’s easy because he doesn’t require much of you?
I know I have been pushing us a bit this week, but it’s only because I believe that if we persevere in faith and keep praying prayers like this, God will give us a breakthrough.
A New Heart, If You Persevere
John Wesley, Charles’ brother who we heard from a few times this week, famously felt his “heart strangely warmed” one night in 1738. His heart had been hard before that, even though he was a Christian. But he persevered and persevered in his faith until his heart was awakened.
My friends, don’t settle for a heart-less faith, where you do all the Christian things but you never feel your heart strangely warmed by His grace! Use this journey, would you, to stretch yourself.
Because God wants to give you a new heart, to remove the old hard one. But he’s not going to force you. He’s going to do it if you’ll submit to Him, and that’s going to take persevering through the cravings, through the disappointments, through the setbacks.
May we take up the challenge, and submit to His grace. We have 35 days to go on this walk together. God has got much to do in our hearts, if we don’t turn away and give up when it gets hard.
