Let Dad Help

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. Ezekiel 36:26

I have been called stubborn quite a few times throughout my life. And stubbornness can be good when it helps you to stand for the right things, or accomplish a difficult task. But other times, lots of times in my case, it shows up as defiance. I didn’t care to be told what I could or couldn’t do. In fact, if I was told I couldn’t do something I often set out to prove that I could do that very thing. Again, sometimes that was good and helped me to achieve something difficult, and other times it was just a stony, stubborn heart that wanted my own way. I tried to change it, tried to want the right things, to do the right things, but it didn’t work because my heart didn’t really change. It was still a rock, wanting to be right, sure that everyone else was wrong. I could sometimes disguise the rock, paint it up to be really pretty, but underneath it was still just a hard rock.

When I handed my stony heart to Jesus, He started to remove the hard parts, the ugly parts, as only He can. By trying so hard to change it ourselves we just end up pressing it into something even harder, trying to force it into what we want it to be. It’s like a child working on a project, and the more she works at it the worse it gets. She just can’t fix it, it keeps breaking. So she uses more and more glue to hold it together, but that just makes it harder and uglier. Finally she gives up and hands it to her dad. He removes all of the old glue, separates all of the original good pieces, and puts them back together the right way. It’s so hard for her to sit there and watch as her project is dismantled after all the hard work she put into it. He invites her to help and shows her the right way to connect all of the pieces. And then she realizes that the end result is so beautiful, something to be proud of. She couldn’t do it alone, she needed the help of her father.

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. 1 Peter 5:6

So I humble myself to give my heart project to my Father, because I’ve messed it up. He takes the time to restore it to what it was meant to be. And when it’s finished He holds it up to show everyone His beloved daughter, and He is so proud. But He doesn’t lift us up until it’s just the right time. We get impatient with the project and say, “That’s good enough Dad. It’s ready.” But His work takes time, it’s a process. Only He knows when the project is ready to be shared, and when it is completed the way He planned it to be. Then He reveals the masterpiece, and shows the world how beautiful it can be when we let Him transform a heart.