I guess I like many of my generation, am prone to be a product of our times. Growing up many of us were required to pinch pennies all the time. Repairing something was always seen as being better than replacing something. That rubbed off into the way I conducted myself as a pastor during 32 plus years of “professional ministry.” I found myself trying to repair the religious system, church members, my family and even casual acquaintances. God wasn’t pleased with Dave the Repairman’s efforts to accomplish in the flesh what could only be accomplished by a God ordered death. When the old dies it can be replaced with the new. (May I add that I have repented of the concept and practice of being a professional clergyman in as much as it doesn’t appear to be a biblical approach in stewarding one’s leadership gift freely given by God. It has not been without some costs.)
I have often prayed for the blood of Jesus to cleanse and make my heart pure, to heal my deceitful heart. This is one of the things that I tried to have fixed or repaired. However, I discovered in the book of Ezekiel that God had a different plan. One that most Christians I know overlook. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Isn’t that profound? God’s plan is not to repair our old “deceitful heart” (Jer. 17:9) but to replace it with a brand new heart.
May I ask you, “Why do you attempt to fix or repair what God wants to, and is replacing?”
You may want to ask God to give you the new heart that He has promised and replace the one that was broken. With the new heart comes a deeper understanding of His ways. That is so much better!
DaveinFL