It’s what’s in your heart that will change your family and not what’s in your wallet.
Proverbs 4:23
“Keep your heart with all diligence,
for out from it flows the wellspring of life.”
Notice it doesn’t say wallet!
It also doesn’t say Capital One either! …It says your heart.
In the original book by L. Frank Baum, Wizard of Oz, it is revealed that the Tin Woodman used to be a man of flesh and blood, but a Wicked Witch cursed his axe to cut off all his body parts, which ultimately caused him to lose his heart. Thus, loosing his love for a Munchkin maid named Nimmie Amee.
The tinsmith replaced the woodsman’s torso, but was unable to replace the heart. Now completely made of tin, but without a heart, the Tin Man became cold and indifferent to the girl and the marriage never occurred. He wants a heart so he can rekindle his love for the girl and marry her.
You see, sin cursed our hearts, deadening our souls and separating us from God. Without a good heart, we remain lost and loveless, with no way to God. We too become cold and indifferent, losing our desire for God. Religion is like the tinsmith that can give us a tin torso, but can’t replace the heart.
Rather than an all powerful Oz, we need an all powerful Savior.
For those who believe in God and are faithful Christ followers, we’ve received a new heart!
Ezekiel 36:26 puts it this way:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of you, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
Notice that God also says He will put a new Spirit within us. This is because our new heart becomes His dwelling place, and from our restored and cleansed heart flows new life for God and others. We become living temples for God.
Now we can obey God from the inside out. Something that the Old Covenant could not do.
Ezekiel 36:27
“…I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
So God places his Spirit inside our new hearts so that we have the ability to do his will, keep his laws, and create a new relationship within us.
Romans 2:29 tells us that the Holy Spirit changes our hearts. This is not an act of our will or effort but an internal operation done by God’s Spirit to those that believe the Gospel.
So, do what you’ve been born again to do, live a changed life because of your changed heart, and so, become that wellspring of life for your family and friends and to the stranger you meet; to your neighbors and coworkers.
Be the best life-giver because the Giver of Life dwells in your new heart.
Call To Courage 