Don’t let it be the National Day of Half-a-Prayer

Today in the U.S., it is the annual National Day of Prayer. Undoubtedly, many Christians will be asking God to change our country and our culture. They will pray for wisdom for our leaders. They will pray against the moral issues of the day. They will confront the evil forces at work in our land. They will pray for revival.

But to confront the darkness in this world without also asking God to search and root out the pockets of darkness in our own hearts is only half a prayer.

In speaking of the National Day of Prayer, Daniel Henderson of ‘Strategic Renewal’ writes, “When we pray for other issues and miss the primary need to become more like Christ as we pray, we are shortsighted. When we pray in order to be changed, we become [God’s] agents of change.”   

Dick Cheney got a New Heart, Not a Change of Heart

Political comics and cartoonists are having a field day with the double entendre of the ultra-conservative VP’s heart transplant: cartoonists picture him in the recovery room with a “change of heart”—transformed into a liberal Democrat!  Of course a “new heart” doesn't mean a “change of heart.” But wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy. But isn’t that God's promise through Ezekiel? “I will give you a new heart... I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (36:26).

Just as the doctors had to remove Cheney's disease ridden heart before replacing it with a new one, God does heart surgery on us, removing the things that make us sick before doing a new thing in our lives. Getting a new heart is a one-time operation but a change of heart is an ongoing procedure.

There's a fascinating spiritual analogy here. Humans have an immune system which protects the body against foreign invasions, i.e., infections. When the immune system perceives the new heart to be 'foreign' matter, it rejects it.  Thus, a recipient of a new heart must take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life.  Similarly, even though we have received a new heart, a change of heart will be resisted by a fleshly instinct to fight it (Gal. 5:17). The antidote to a “flesh” takeover is a daily heart examination by the Word of God (Ps. 26:2; 119:9, 67). And even after your new heart results in a change of heart, you will need to watch over it with all diligence.” (Prov. 4:23).

I Hate Asparagus -- A Very Lose Paraphrase of Romans 7

Imagine if God made a law: “Everyone must eat asparagus on Sundays.” I would dread Sundays. And knowing my gag-reflex for asparagus, I probably would NOT eat it. And then I would feel very guilty. It's not that I disagree with God’s commandment. I am sure it's a good commandment. After all, asparagus must be good for me—vitamins, fiber, and probably other nutrients you can get nowhere else! It’s just me. It's the way I am wired! I can’t do it! I wish I was an asparagus-eating-loving-kind-of-guy, but I am just not. I wish there were some way I could change that law. Woe is me!

And then one day God says” “Greg, I am going to change your appetite—I am going to change your desire so that you will love asparagus.” And from that day on, I am a changed man. Now I look forward to Sundays—because I get to eat asparagus. Of course, I can eat asparagus any day of the week, but knowing God is pleased when I eat it on Sundays in particular, I love Sundays.

And now when someone says, “Do you know that God has commanded you to eat asparagus on Sundays?” I say: “Yes, I know, and I just love Sundays." Whether there is a law or not doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t need a law to make me eat asparagus on Sundays. The law is inside of me; it’s in my heart. I am an asparagus-lover by nature.

I wanted to change the law, but instead God changed me. It’s not a new law I needed; it was a new nature.

“This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone [asparagus-hater] from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh [asparagus-lover] ” (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:26).