A New Heart
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 45, “A New Spirit Will I Put within You,” on Gospel Library
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A human heart beats about a hundred thousand times a day. Through Ezekiel, the Lord promised his people a new one.
Read Together
The Lord had scattered Israel among the nations for their sins. In Ezekiel 36, he promised to gather them home and change them from the inside (Ezekiel 36:19; 36:24).
25Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
What It Teaches
In verse 25, the Lord promises to “sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” Under the law of Moses, water was sprinkled on a person to make him clean (Numbers 19:18–19). For us, that cleansing begins with baptism.
Then he promises to take away “the stony heart” and give “an heart of flesh” (verse 26). A stone feels nothing. A heart of flesh can feel sorrow, love, and the Spirit.
In verse 27, the Lord puts his own Spirit within his people and causes them to walk in his statutes. He gives the new heart, and then he helps us keep his commandments. King Benjamin’s people felt this change. They said the Spirit had changed their hearts until they no longer wanted to do evil (Mosiah 5:2).
Alma asked members of the Church whether they could still feel the mighty change of heart they had felt before (Alma 5:14; 5:26). President Ezra Taft Benson taught that for most people the change comes slowly. “For every Paul, for every Enos, and for every King Lamoni, there are hundreds and thousands of people who find the process of repentance much more subtle, much more imperceptible. Day by day they move closer to the Lord, little realizing they are building a godlike life.”
President Ezra Taft Benson, “A Mighty Change of Heart,” Ensign, October 1989
Talk About It
What is something that used to be hard to do and now feels easier because your heart has changed? What might the Lord want to soften in your heart next?
Take to Church
Ezekiel’s promise of a new heart comes with a second promise. The Lord puts his Spirit within us to help us keep his commandments, so we never have to change ourselves alone.