Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV) 26 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.
The heart must remain tender for the love of God to grow in it.
The people around us all have different personality types. And doesn’t it seem like we often end up working around those that irritate us?
Many times it seems difficult to find the people that are easy for us to be around. Boy, wouldn’t things be so much nicer if we could?
But easy is not the way. It will keep us in one place, standing still. Challenge is what causes our hearts to become tender and to grow in the love of God.
The different types of personalities can be beneficial to us if we can just see things the way God does.
Working, or spending a lot of time with someone that is different than we are can teach us a lot of things. Being friends with someone that is opposite in personality type can be a very good thing.
Being married to someone that is so different can also be a wonderful thing, especially if we see the benefits in embracing such a thing.
Our journey here is not about reaching a certain point and just comfortably sitting there, surrounding ourselves only with those that are like us.
No. We need to be constantly learning, growing and embracing that which challenges us to become more than who we are.
We can choose to seek the easy way and always be around those with similar personalities to ours. But if we are always around the same, how will we ever change, grow or learn more than what we already know?
As nice as it may seem, it would get boring and dull.
God can take someone with a different way of doing things and a different personality, temperament, etc., and use it to strengthen us. He can use it to help us open up in those areas where we are so resistant toward anything different.
Imagine if Paul did not let change come to his heart. What if he stayed stiff-necked about what he was doing toward Christians, because he thought that what he was doing was the right thing to do?
You can see how that part of his heart was closed and hard. But God taught him how to love people that weren’t like him; people that thought differently than him and did things differently. He was challenged.
Paul’s heart changed when he embraced that challenge, and love grew where there was once extreme hatred.
What part of our heart needs changing today? Let God bring in the difference that we need to soften that area in our heart.
A tender heart is beautiful. It’s a heart that God can work with.
Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808
401-315-0902
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