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A Heart of Flesh

February 20, 2026 at 10:10 AM 2 comments

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. (Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV)

I recall a number of years ago not really wanting to be around people much. I had and have friends and family of course, but interestingly enough, being around the average person seemed to take a lot out of me. It was tiring. I would often look at Scripture to see how Jesus dealt with people and overall, for the most part, He seemed to enjoy being around people. Yes, He got short with some of them at times when His righteous indignation would kick in, but even then, He was very measured and loving in His responses to people (including His disciples/apostles).

When I consider Jesus’ life and how much He loved people, giving them the time of day and generally doing what He could to ensure that He turned no one away from Him, I had to begin asking myself why I was not more like that. It’s a good question and one that we should probably all be asking ourselves because even for those believers who do love others, do we ever truly love others enough?

Several years later, I’ve noticed something that has changed within and the catalyst for that goes directly back to my wife’s heart situation February 2025 when I was, unfortunately, shaken to my core over it. But as I look back over the year since then, I’ve been able to see things the Lord has accomplished in me. Because of what He personally brought me through I can clearly see that my attitude and demeanor toward others has drastically changed and for the better.

I can only describe it as though God has melted the previous hardness of my heart and is now in the process of creating within me a heart of flesh, a heart that cares about other people and wants to see them become whole in Jesus. This is essentially the very root of compassion. This not only applies to people who are non-Christians but also (and maybe most importantly), to other believers.

Recently, I’ve seen this most clearly with respect to my attitude toward Silvia’s younger brother, Erich. He’s been drinking since he was 14 (he’s now 59). He continues drinking today with breaks in between. He’s also been smoking for years, another habit that continues today. He has a litany of health issues associated with those addictions.

In the past it has been easy to take a hardline approach to him. I’d reason that he did this to himself and no one can really help him except God. While that may be true, that attitude within me was born of hubris, blindness and an unwillingness to see him as God sees him.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 1 John 4:11-12

As we read in the above two verses it is important for Christians to adopt God’s approach when dealing and interacting with other people. God does not look at me and think, “Well Fred, you got yourself into your situation so deal with it!” That’s an absurd, untruthful approach to God, life and people. If it’s happening within a Christian it needs to stop and the exact opposite approach needs to replace it. I cannot imagine authentic believers seeing it any other way. But the question boils down to this: How is love for God and others created in the heart of the believer?

Personally, I do not believe the Christian can create that attitude and demeanor within. It’s beyond us. What we can and should do is desperately want His love to be created in us to work through us in order to reach out to other people. This is the epitome of Jesus’ demeanor as He walked physically through life. We need to do the same. In other words, the Christian’s job is to truly desire God to create His love for Him and others in our hearts. This is something only God can do. Anything other than that is something we conjure up in our own strength.

So while things in me have been changing over the last year, I’ve come to a point where my growing desire is to have God create His love in my heart for others. It’s really a major aspect of our sanctification. That’s really what John is talking about in the above passage. He first notes that if (better, since), God loves us, we should love others in the same way.

John goes onto say that if we have and exercise love for others, God’s love is (being) perfected in us, even though the text points to a past tense position. In reality John is pointing back to when we received salvation, which began the process of helping us learn to love as God loves because we began to experience His love at that juncture.

But learning to love others as God loves us is not a once and done situation. It is continual growth stemming from an increasing, growing desire to be more and more like Him.

I am beginning to see this more thoroughly in the way I deal with people now and Silvia’s brother is a recent case in point. We flew out to California recently for Rose’s (Silvia’s mom), viewing and funeral. We were also there at the time Silvia’s brother held a memorial gathering for his wife who had died several weeks before Rose, his mother, had died. For him it was a double whammy so we were glad we were there for him.

We asked if it was okay to stay with him while we there rather than go to a hotel. He said he’d be happy for the company. The fact that he had two German Shepherds was fine with us because we knew we’d miss our two dogs at home and we love dogs.

I prayed that God would help me adopt His attitude for Erich while we stayed with him, because my patience was not always the greatest. It was fairly easy for me to pick him apart in my mind for one thing or another.

However I noticed this time I saw him with new eyes. I saw the problems associated with years of drug and alcohol use. I heard the way he communicated. He is not an idiot by any stretch, but he likely has alcohol related dementia syndrome (ARDS). Because of this, he also has aphasia where he is constantly contorting his mouth and face in extreme positions trying desperately to remember what he’s trying to say and to communicate with others. It can be a bit painful to watch.

Listening to Erich becomes the perfect caricature of someone with an alcohol/drug addled brain. It reminds me of Foster Brooks and his near perfect representation of a tipsy drunk who goes through his days physically tipsy while slurring words, and being overly boisterous. This is often due to the fact that the frontal lobe that affects emotion and behavior is damaged from years of alcohol/drug abuse.

But what I found very interesting in seeing Erich this time is that he did not annoy me. I actually found my heart reaching out to him. I wanted (and want), better for him. I want him to know the Lord. I want him to know what it means to be loved in spite of his problems and issues. I want God to break into his heart.

We’ve already begun to see God moving. Aside from our time spent with Erich, just hanging out with him and helping him through situations, his neighbor and her son really care about Erich. They are Christians and have invited him to their church. We’ve encouraged them to keep doing that and we’ve encouraged Erich to go. She loves Erich because he reminds her of her younger son. She is such a major help to us and suggested Silvia take power of attorney over Erich’s medical situation if Erich approves. We discussed it to Erich and he is fine with it so we’ve begun the process. This will be a load off his mind as Silvia can keep up to date with his medical situation, make appointments for him and stay in touch with doctors who oversee his care. This is also a tangible way to love Erich because he is clueless about this situation. He didn’t even know how to set up his voice mail so we got that set up for him.

The truth is that we Christians are to imitate Jesus in coming alongside others in helping and lifting them up to Him. This is best seen in practical, tangible ways.

I’m finding that God is truly creating within me a heart of flesh, a heart that flows with compassion to others. It feels. It empathizes. It engages. It reaches out to people who seem unlovable yet God loves them immensely.

I’m still getting used to this new heart. I found myself shedding tears for Erich during our stay with him. It’s weird really but I’m glad for it because it tells me God is working in and through me to reach Erich.

Erich is virtually alone. His wife died. Shortly after that his mom died. He has two sweet dogs but not many real friends. He needs to get to church where people can love him, come alongside him and introduce him to Jesus.

Will you pray for Erich please? Will you pray that God would continue to reach out to Erich through my wife and I, his neighbors and other family members? He really has no one else and we’re all so far away from him.

I believe God’s love for people can break down all barriers. I believe that includes Erich. Maybe God won’t fully correct every issue in Erich’s life. Maybe the most important thing is that Erich finds God in Christ. Certainly, God can do anything, but it may also be that God will allow what is in-progress now with Erich’s beaten body to continue to wear out. He may die sooner than later. Only God knows. But the reality is that Erich needs Jesus and whatever happens after that is for God to determine.

May Erich truly find God and His salvation.

Entry filed under: christianity, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, salvation, sanctification. Tags: Ezekiel 36:26.