A new heart and a new spirit
On the occasion of the new year, I would like to speak to you about the new heart. For this reason, we read the promises of God recorded for us by the prophet Ezekiel, as the Lord says: “And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your impurities,” “And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you,” “And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh,” “And I will put My Spirit within you, and make you walk in My statutes” (Ez. 36:25–27).
A new heart and a new spirit.
This is what we desire at the beginning of every year: we set ourselves apart with the Lord and ask Him to give us a new heart and a new spirit. And we continually pray Psalm 50 and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
This new heart is a heart that has left the entire past behind, as the Scripture says, “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). And it also says, “Put on the new man” (Eph. 4:24).
Many of God’s children were given by the Lord a new name in their calling. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Saul became Paul, Simon became Peter, and Sarai became Sarah.
And the new name was a symbol of the new life in the Lord…
We gain nothing if the matter is limited only to changing the number of the year in the calendar; what is important is that our lives change. The repentant person is someone who has changed: his view of things has changed, his desires have changed, and even his outward appearance may change. His way of life, his style, his approach, his ideals—all have changed.
Whoever looks at him feels he is before another person, that the old person has died, and behold, all things have become new…
He has entered a new year in a new way…
It saddens us that many people confess and leave confession as they are. They partake of Communion and leave Communion as they were… the same manners, the same way, as if nothing happened.
But the person who wants to begin his life with God begins with a new heart and a new spirit, as the Apostle said:
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12).
What does the phrase “renewing of your mind” mean except that the manner of thinking has changed, that people’s viewpoint has been replaced with the divine viewpoint…
The renewal of the heart means repentance, and repentance gives a person a new heart.
God wipes away previous sins. He washes the person and he becomes whiter than snow. His thoughts, his words, and his desires become pure. His manner and his dealings with people change…
And how many are the examples of this change:
Moses the Black, who was a harsh man and a killer, when he first entered the monastery, the monks were afraid of him. Yet he became the gentle, kind, hospitable Moses, long-suffering and greatly patient…
The person who falls and rises, and falls and rises, has not yet changed; he is still on an unsteady, wavering line…
Jacob the patriarch did not change from Jacob to Israel except after he wrestled with God and prevailed, and received the promises. For the person needs to wrestle with God to receive the new heart.
The promise of the Lord is clear. He did not say, “Go and search for new hearts for yourselves,” but rather, “I will give you a new heart”…
Thus this new heart is a gift from God; God creates it within us. God removes our stony heart and places a heart of flesh…
God is the One who will accomplish the entire work: “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, and remove the heart of stone… and make you walk in My statutes”…
Thus the process of change is a divine process carried out by the Holy Spirit within the person. Since this is the case, let us wrestle with God and take from Him the new heart, holding fast to His truthful promises…
Let us say to Him: Since You, O Lord, have promised, You must give. And we remain wrestling with Him until dawn, spending the whole darkness of night in struggle, and the dawn rises upon us with a new name and a new heart.
However, some people, when they receive from the Lord a new heart, want to keep the old heart beside the new one!!
They end up with two hearts: a new heart that loves goodness, and an old heart that longs for sin. They spend an hour with God and another with Satan. They limp between two sides… like Ananias and Sapphira, who placed their money at the apostles’ feet and at the same time kept the unlawful money! And like Lot’s wife: her hand in the angel’s hand, and her eyes looking back toward Sodom!!
This is not permissible, that we place a new patch on an old garment!
“What fellowship has light with darkness?! And what communion has Christ with Belial?!” If you want to live with God, live with Him completely—with all your mind, all your heart, all your will, and all your life… as the Scripture says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deut. 6).
Many people, in renewing their minds, focus only on outward practices such as prayer, reading, meditation, confession, and fasting. They forget the heart from within, and the Lord rejects their formal worship. But you, at the beginning of the year, give attention to your heart, or ask God for the new heart and the new spirit. And pour yourself out before God and say to Him:
Enough for me, O Lord, of this past year in which I relied on my will, my thinking, my strength, and my humanity, and I did not include You in the work…!
Let us begin this year in a new way. You said, “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.” Give me then this heart and this spirit, so that I may have the righteousness of faith, and not human righteousness.
“Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
You are the One who will create this heart within me, and renew the spirit, and sprinkle upon me with Your hyssop and I shall be clean, and wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. I do not want to patch up this heart and repair it; rather, I want a new heart created by You, in Your image and likeness.
This heart of mine wearied me in the past year. Give me another.
Naaman the Syrian, the leper, when Elisha the prophet healed him, came out of the water with new flesh, new skin like the skin of a small boy, with no trace whatsoever of the old life.
So also is the new life in heaven, to which our life leads:
John the seer says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (Rev. 21:1). And he also speaks to us of the new Jerusalem, descending from heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband.
This Jerusalem represents our hearts—we want them new, descending from heaven… as a dwelling place for God among people. We want the Lord to give us this new life as a free gift from Him, descending from heaven, from the Father of lights…
Everything we received from our humanity is self-righteousness, the righteousness given to us by our will, which false glory swallowed from us and within us… and it remains for us to take the righteousness of Christ, to take from Him the Spirit which He places within us…
When Peter lifted the sword, the Lord said to him, “Put your sword in its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword,” and He said to Moses:
“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace”…
I want to see You, O Lord, fighting, while I stand and behold the salvation of the Lord, and say to myself, “The battle is the Lord’s. And the Lord conquers with many or with few…” David, when he fought Goliath, did not claim that he would triumph over him, but said to him, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand” (1 Sam. 17:46).
When will You deliver him into my hand, O Lord—this arrogant Goliath who insults the ranks of the Lord? Before whom the entire army was weakened!!
Say to Him: “O Lord, hold my hand and lead me,” for the Scripture says that He “leads us in triumphal procession.”
How difficult is the self-leading of man… yet many times he says: I have done everything I could do, and I am still as I am.
“I have labored all night and caught nothing.” So the Lord says to him: That is because you worked alone. You have a ready lamp, but no oil in it. You do not have the Holy Spirit who spoke through the prophets!
Therefore, in this year, strive to bring Christ into your life…
Take from Him strength. Take His powerful, effective word. Buy from Him eye salve that you may anoint your eyes, and a garment that you may be clothed… If you find yourself having fallen, say to Him: Perhaps, my Master, You did not give me strength. If I cannot free myself from this sin, then say, O Lord, a word, and my servant shall be healed. I, O Lord, do not hide my condition from You. I do not possess a strength with which I can resist the enemy, nor do I have a good will, nor a strong determination. I speak to You frankly, and cast my weakness upon You…
Show me, O Lord, Your mercy. For I am silent, believing my eyes more than my ears!
Wrestle with the Lord, then, and take from Him a new heart. But here is a secret I tell you: Often a person begins the new year with a good beginning, but the devil strikes him with all his power at this beginning, so that he may fall and despair and fail…!
If you fall at the beginning of the year, do not despair. Know that it is a trick of the devil… or prepare yourself so that you do not fall. If you see the trial coming from afar, say to yourself, “We are not ignorant of his devices”!
Be like a steadfast mountain: the winds strike it, yet it does not move. It is a mountain. Say to the Lord: I lived as a sandy hill for a long time; give me to be a rocky mountain so that I will not be shaken… At the beginning of this year, besides wrestling with God to receive help, we must also struggle with ourselves, as the Apostle said: “Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.”
God has set before us a new page in which we have not yet written anything. Let everything we write be pure and clean. And let us walk in a way worthy of the calling with which we were called. And let it be a blessed year, in which we do the work of the Lord, and the Lord works with us…
And every year, may you all be well…
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