No Longer a Heart of Stone

I didn’t know that the heart could be stony until I read the Bible.  Talk about stones, if you have never passed a kidney stone, it’s no fun.  Please drink plenty of water—take my word for it. 

I have never experienced such pain when one of my kidneys expelled a stone into the ureter that leads to the bladder.  I felt like giving up the ghost…oh me, oh my!  Ouch!  I’ve heard that it’s worse than having a baby.

The pain was so intense that I pleaded with my wife to run the red signal lights as she drove me to the hospital emergency.  But she was a conscientious, law-abiding Citizen and didn’t do what I was begging her to do.  It makes me smile, now that I look back.

Another stone I want to forget is the 1” diameter gallstone that put me in the hospital a few years back.  I lost my gallbladder over that encounter.

I’m not sharing these woes to drum up sympathy; I just want to someway present a parallel having to do with stones in my life.

Before I became a Christian, I was on a rocky road that was filled with pain of different sorts.  My friends were stone cold and lacked compassion and tolerance for anyone.  My temperament was like a heart of stone.  It was not a caring heart by any stretch of imagination.

I was a man running from God that could hurl stone after stone at those having faith in the solid Rock, Jesus Christ.  I wanted no part of Him.

One night I was feeling low and thinking about the road I was traveling on and the turmoil that was rocking my world.  I finally saw the Light in my early twenties when I realized just how miserable I was without the Lord in my heart.   I lifted my hands toward heaven in the quietness of my apartment and surrendered everything to my Creator.

When Deity took up residence within me, my heart rocked with joy.  I used to be a person who rocked out at parties and clubs, but since my amazing conversion to Truth, the old man took on a new look with new desires to draw closer to Almighty God.

(2 Corinthians 5:17), “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

I found a new way of living, with wonderful values and a heart for people that need the same Savior that forgave my sins.  God removed the stony heart and replaced it with a heart of compassion and love for others…a real treasure of new beginnings and concern for those needing the Lord.

(Matthew 6:19-21), “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;” (v 20) “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (v 21) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

After God freed my soul from sin that held me down like a millstone around my neck, peace flooded my soul.  Now, there is no longer a heart of stone where once there was a heart that rejected God’s grace.

(Ezekiel 36:26, 27), “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (v 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.”

I found Who I was looking for.  God gave me new visions and a real purpose for living.  Thank you, God, for your faithfulness and love toward me and to the person reading these words.

Written by,

Papa Boyd