✝️ Ezekiel 36:26 | The Promise Fulfilled

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Happy Thursday, {{first_name | everyone}}!

So far this week, we’ve looked at why a new heart is needed and what a new heart is.

You might be thinking to yourself…How does God give me a new heart?

That’s what we’re looking at today!

In today’s email…

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And _ will ____ ___ a ___ _____, and a ___ ______ _ ____ ___ ______ you. And _ ____ ______ the _____ __ _____ from your _____ and ____ you a _____ of _____.

Ezekiel 36:26

Earlier this week we spoke about Ezekiel being a prophet, but did you notice that our verse this week is also a prophecy that finds its fulfillment in Jesus?

There are two specific promises in our memory verse that Jesus fulfilled:

a new heart & a new spirit

From the Garden of Eden onward, every ordinary human being has rebelled against God and fallen short of His glory. Jesus alone is without sin.

The cry of the Old Testament was for God to do what people could not do for themselves — to give them a pure heart:

Yesterday, we discovered that the biblical word for heart means more than feelings. It includes our thoughts, desires, will, and actions — the whole inner person.

Which means God’s promise of a new heart is a promise of whole-life transformation.

A new heart:

Jesus came to save sinners and make them new. He doesn’t offer better advice or a new set of rules. He offers new life.

Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can enter God’s kingdom without being born again (John 3:3). And Paul later described everyone who belongs to Christ as an entirely new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

A heart of stone is naturally hardened toward God. It does not rightly see its sin, love God as it should, or desire to obey Him.

But through faith in Christ, God gives His people new hearts — ones that are alive and responsive to Him.

A new spirit:

Before Christ saves us, we might know what is right yet still not do it because we’re resisting God’s rule.

But the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see Christ, convicts us of sin, assures us that we belong to God, and gives us power to increasingly obey His Word.

This does not mean Christians never struggle with sin. But it means we are no longer left alone or ruled by sin.

God Himself is at work within us, changing not only what we do, but what we want.

Jesus does not merely tell us to change.

He saves us by grace, cleanses us from sin, and gives us His Spirit.

That is the good news of Ezekiel 36:26–27.

We serve the God who gives…

A new heart.

A new spirit.

A new life in Christ.

🤔 Reflect

Where have you already seen evidence of God’s renewing work in your life?

Think of one area where you once resisted God’s ways, but now obey Him. Thank God that this change is evidence of His grace and that He has not left you with a heart of stone.

🏃‍♂ Act

Think of someone who has been on the receiving end of your impatience, bitterness, coldness, or refusal to forgive.

Confess that hardness to God. Then take one concrete step toward loving that person in a way that reflects Christ: ask forgiveness, speak truth with kindness, serve them, or forgive them from the heart.

🙏 Pray

Father, thank you for your Son. He fulfilled the very promises you made in this verse through the prophet Ezekiel. I praise you for the new life and new spirit I have in Jesus Christ and the evidence I already have that you have been making my heart new. Through your Spirit, continue to renew me from the inside out. Amen.

We’ve been so encouraged by how God is moving in your lives! To that end, we’ll continue to highlight “God stories” from the Malachi Daily community.

We would love to hear how God is moving in your life!

Simply fill out this 30-second survey and tell us what you’ve seen God do!

"Today's Context made so much of the Old Testament open up and encouraged me even more to seek him out. It let me see that I am a sinner, bought through Jesus Christ's sacrifice, forgiven and made a beloved child forever."

— A Malachi Daily reader

"God answered a 33-year-old prayer. From age 15 to 47 my son was in and out of jail, and God turned his life around; he has been home two years now, working as a chef. Look at God!"

— Sharon, Danbury CT

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And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26