Stone Hearts to Flesh [part four]

{Ezekiel 11:19 - I will take from them their hearts of stone, and give to them hearts of flesh.}

 

Perhaps the hardest answer for me to grasp, was how to see myself as God sees me:

A guilty criminal - who has received full pardon.
A hopeless cause - whom he adopted into his family.
A mangled heart - that he took into his hands, and used to create a masterpiece.

Before you can understand how God sees you now, you have to understand how God saw you then.

Then, you were a guilty criminal.

You're in a dungeon cell. Captured by the weight of your sin. Satan is holding you as his own, a prisoner. You are guilty. There is no chance for you to stand clean in front of any jury.

Then, you were a hopeless cause.

No one was able to get you out of your prison. You were unable to break the habits of your sin. In fact, you did not want to get out - not really.

Then, you were a mangled heart.

Your sin, your bitterness, your pain had twisted the spirit given to you. It cast a deep shadow over any speck of light that might once have been there.

But God in his perfect love has looked past all of that. He sent Christ into the prison to pay the ransom, and take the punishment we deserved. When God looks at us - he sees Christ; not the mess we once were. He led us from the jail cell, into the very presence of Himself. He has called us his own. God has taken our broken, bleeding, crippled spirits and said "This, this is beauty. This is lovely. This is mine. Mine to love."

How do you see yourself? When you look in the mirror, who's reflection are you seeing?

The world will say you are ugly, plain, fat, too skinny, weird, unimportant...

But when you choose to see yourself as Christ sees you, as God views you, things change. The reflection becomes beautiful, unique, hopeful, strong...His.

Romans 9:22-26 says it all:

"What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath - those headed for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy , whom he prepared in advance for his glory - even us whom he called, not only from the Jews but also the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:
 

'I will call them 'My People' who are not my people; and I will call her 'My Love' who is not my love.'

and,

'In the very place where I told them 'You are not my people'; I will now call them 'My People'. "

Let it sink in for just a bit.  We are the objects of God's mercy. We were headed for destruction, and yet he cared for us with patience, and showed us his glory. He calls us His People. He calls you His Love.

We are no longer Prisoners of Sin - we are Objects of Mercy and Love.