A tender heart toward God....

Ezekiel 36:24-31
“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
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.
²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
²⁸ You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.
³⁰ I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine.
³¹ Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices."

What beautiful words!
I sat for a long time just meditating on these words this morning.
If I was to outline this in a sermon I might say...
Here, progressively, God says to His people:
I will redeem you.
I will regenerate you.
I will recreate you.
I will reside in you.
I will proclaim you.
I will protect you.
I will provide for you.
I will promote you.

I am especially touched by verses 26 and 27,
"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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

The sign of a soft and tender heart is obedience. Many may raise their hands in worship, weep in prayer, nod to Scripture and even give generously. But a tender heart, filled with the Spirit of God will be moved to obedience in every way.
Is my heart tender toward God? There is only one test for this... obedience.
In this regard, there are many spots within my heart that are tender toward God, soft to His touch and ready to be moved. Yet, there are far too many hard areas where I do not let the Lord move me, where I am hard and stony. That's where the Spirit of God plays the largest role in my life. There, as He resides in my heart, He begins to identify those stony areas and pick at them with conviction of what must change in me and reminders of what I used to be. There, in the quiet of my heart, God promotes in me a desire to change... or at least a desire to not stay the same.
The key to responding to the Spirit's work is to sit still long enough each day to feel the pick, to hear His voice, to sense His touch. This is why I sit daily with the Word of God.

Lord, soften my heart. Make me tender to recognize your touch and ready to be moved by you. Remove the stony areas from within me and replace them with a tender heart. Move me to obedience that I might live a fruitful life that proclaims Your faithfulness to all those around me. Amen.