New heart, new desires, new life — you probably know the God “will give you the desires of your heart” verse in the bible. But what does it mean? This article by guest writer Deborah Smith, which appeared first here on Reviving Your Heart, tells a story of we all need to hear. Her story is used with permission. Part 2 in a 3-part series. Here’s part 1.hope icon

Consider these three beautiful truths:

  • Christians have new hearts.
  • Christians have new desires.
  • And Christians have new life!

Last time we heard Deborah’s story of overcoming addiction. Now let’s look at developing new desires!

New Desires

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart (Ps. 37:4).

Delight means to be pleased greatly, captivated, charmed, thrilled. Does that describe your relationship with Christ?

The fruit of being captivated, greatly pleased, charmed, and thrilled by Him is that He will actually give you the things you desire. You will want new things . . . godly things . . . things that are consistent with the new person that the Holy Spirit is crafting.

 We will want things that the Lord would be pleased to give us.

That doesn’t mean we won’t ever be tempted with fleshly desires, because we will—we are still sinners. But the deepest desire of our heart will be to please the Lord, so we will war against our flesh that wants otherwise. We will resist the devil until he flees (James 4:7).

You Hate the Things You Used to Love

Beloved, we are walking with Jesus now. We are “dead to sin” and have different desires. What a beautiful reality—that as a Christian, we are dead to things that we used to live for. Romans 6:10–11 says,

The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Oh, I hope you get that! Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe! So when the enemy tempts you with your old sin of choice, remember that “you are dead to that.”

When I stopped smoking cigarettes thirteen years ago, I remember a good friend telling me that if I find myself thinking, I want a cigarette, that I should simply say to myself, That’s crazy, you don’t smoke! Why would I want a cigarette if I don’t smoke?

Likewise, why would you want that sin when you are dead to that? Again, we are in a process, we will still battle ungodly desires. So we are to be careful to “make no provision for sin.” And we fight, knowing that the power that is in us enables us to “want” it without giving into that desire. We are now free!

New Life

If our hearts are new, and we now want new things, and we are doing new things— that equates to new life, loved ones!

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:1–4).

What does it mean to “walk in newness of life”? 

This new life is something that we have to participate in. It’s a gift we have been given, but we must live it out. Even though the good work has begun, we are in a maturation process and it takes time to grow.

At the moment of conversion, the Holy Spirit, who is our helper, came to live within us. He is the source of our power. But we must “be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

You Are God’s Workmanship!

Beloved, if you don’t get anything else, please get this: You and I are “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Do you see that? God’s workmanship . . . we are something that God is preparing, shaping and molding for His purposes.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, the apostle Paul launches into a list of sins that characterize the life of one who is not saved—called the unrighteous—and in verse 11, he says this:

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We are not supposed to dwell on or glorify our sinful past, but I believe that God highlights those sins and reminds us that we were once slaves to those things for a reason.

WATCH for Part 3 in this 3-part series. You’ll come to understand that you need not life in the past! Be sure you get it — subscribe to my blog!

Counseling Hearts to Hope,

 

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