Thank you to Mark for this week’s MWB
One of the most challenging verses in the Old Testament is Jeremiah’s reflection on the condition of the human heart in Chapter 17:9:
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
The heart in the Bible is the control centre for what we think, say, and do. And Jeremiah says that control centre is “deceitful above all things and beyond cure”.
So what hope is there for us? The answer comes two books later in Ezekiel 36:26:
“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.”
In Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus in 3:7,8, we read:
“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Jesus is speaking of the new birth. Later in John’s Gospel, He speaks about those who are born again being like branches grafted into Him, the Living Vine. He says:
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
John 15:4 NIV
Which brings us to the Fruit of the Spirit:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:22-25 NIV
How do we “keep in step with the Spirit?” By remaining in the Vine, keeping coming back day by day to the One who has given us a new heart, a new birth, and is “The Way, the Truth, the Life”