You've been hurt, disappointed, your dream has become a nightmare, or maybe you're feeling alone. Ground that's been walked on a lot gets very hard, and so does a heart.
A heart transplant is still one of the most amazing medical procedures ever developed. Actually taking the heart of one person who has just died and shortly thereafter transplanting it into another person whose heart is failing is absolutely amazing. Today, over 2,000 of these heart transplants are performed every year in the United States. The first one took place in 1967 in South Africa. Christian Barnard, the heart surgeon who carried out this breakthrough operation, is now in the pages of medical history with the giants.
While medical history records that the first heart transplant was performed by Dr. Barnard in the 1960s, real heart transplants were actually pioneered a millenia ago by the Master Heart Surgeon. This miraculous procedure is more life changing than any medical procedure could ever be.
God describes this amazing transplant He wants to give each one of us in Ezekiel 11:19-20. He says, "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh...they will be my people, and I will be their God." That change of heart is something only God can do; it's beyond the ability of any counselor, doctor, or religion. Only God can take a hard, cold, hurting heart and replace it with a heart that is able to heal, to feel, and to fully give and receive love - especially His love.
Maybe that "heart of stone" God talks about describes your heart right now. A heart of stone is like any physically unhealthy heart. It's slowing you down, dragging you down, damaging and destroying relationships, and causing you more pain. It's time for you to accept Jesus' tender invitation, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He's inviting you to come to Him and pour out the anger, the bitterness, and all the pain. You could do that with someone else, but they don't have Jesus' healing power. Tell Jesus that you're tired of being shut down inside, preoccupied with the past, and filled with pain. He came, the Bible says, to "bind up the brokenhearted" and "proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners" (Isaiah 61:1).
This heart transplant miracle is not cheap; it was paid for by Jesus Himself. Actually, it took His awful death on the cross to pay for every sin you've ever done and every sin ever done against you. When you open your sin-hurt, sin-hardened heart to Him, He comes in with His awesome love and forgives you, heals you, and redirects you from a past that's been mostly about you to a future that's about Him.
If you've never opened your heart to the one person who can give you a new beginning, you could tell Him you want to belong to Him right now. There really is hope. It doesn't have to be like it's been for so long, when you let Dr. Jesus give you the miracle of a new heart.