Your Change of Heart

Matthew 3:8 Change your hearts! And show by the way you live that you have changed.

Have you ever tried to kick a bad habit? It’s not easy. Whether it’s smoking, eating the wrong foods, being a nasty piece of work, gossiping – whatever it happens to be – typically we struggle, then we fail.

The reality is that changing ourselves, setting our lives on a new course – the one we really want, the one we know to be right – has a degree of difficulty that’s way off the charts.

As John the Baptist, back in the day, was preparing Israel for the coming of Jesus their Messiah, he said this:

Matthew 3:8 Change your hearts! And show by the way you live that you have changed.

A more literal translation would go something like this: bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Repentance equals a change of heart – and a change of heart from God’s perspective is meant to lead to new fruit, good fruit … a clear demonstration in the way we live that we’ve turned back to Him.

As A.W. Tozer put it, if we aren’t changed by God’s grace, then we aren’t saved by His grace.

I wish I could tell you that I changed my own life, that I conquered all my demons and that through my good works I became a better person. But that’d be a lie. The power to change only comes when we open our hearts to God and begin to wrap them around His incredible grace through the sacrifice of Jesus on that Cross to pay the penalty of our sin.

But change we must. Change your heart! And show by the way you live that you’ve changed.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.