When the clock strikes midnight on December 31 of each year, a new year begins. And with a new year comes the hope of a better year than the one before. Dreams left unfulfilled in the previous year have a new opportunity to be realized. Every year presents for us the opportunity to reflect, evaluate, and prayerfully dream again about what could be in the coming months ahead.
I have recently been reflecting on Ezekiel 11:19. This verse came to me in a time of prayer when I was greatly distressed over the condition of my heart before the Lord’s presence. In prayer, I began asking God to change my heart and as He does many times in answer to my prayer, He led me to His Word in Ezekiel 11:19. This verse says, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
Throughout the end of 2011 and into 2012, my prayer has been that the Lord would do such a thing in me. I confess, all too often my heart is divided over some things good and some things not so good. At times I feel as though my spirit has grown empty and cold. And sadly, there are moments when I feel as though my heart is as hard as stone.
The closer I walk with Jesus the more deficient I find I am and the more dependent I see I am upon His grace. As one year is closed and another begins, I find myself crying out to God with greater passion, sadness, and humility than ever before. However, in the midst of my brokenness over my imperfections, He infuses me with the hope that He has indeed given me a new spirit and that my divided heart is made whole in His hands. That is hope worth dreaming about for 2012!
Dreaming Again,
Jeff Powell
