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Ezekiel 36:26
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

(AI Overview) In the Bible, a heart of stone (or hardened heart) is caused by persistent sin, rebellion, pride, refusing to hear or obey God's Word (like the Law or prophets), suppressing truth, and choosing worldly comfort or self-gratification over spiritual growth, leading to spiritual coldness, inflexibility, and a lack of compassion or repentance. It's a state where a person becomes spiritually dead and unresponsive to God, even amid suffering or external religious activity, as seen in Pharaoh's stubbornness and Israel's rebellion. 
Key Causes and Behaviors:
Rebellion & Disobedience: Refusing to listen to and obey God's laws and teachings, as described in Zechariah 7:12.
Unrepentant Sin: Continuing in sin without confession, which desensitizes the conscience, making right and wrong indistinguishable.
Pride & Self-Deception: Believing one is beyond God's judgment or needs no change, a characteristic of Pharaoh.
Suppressing Truth: Actively ignoring or rejecting God's truth, leading to a debased mind and sinful desires, as in Romans 1.
Worldly Comfort & Control: Prioritizing personal ease, control, or self-protection (even from pain) over spiritual realities.
Spiritual Apathy: A lack of care for spiritual growth, worship, or others, becoming cold, unfeeling, and inflexible. 
How it Develops:
Gradual Process: Like petrification, it happens slowly as organic molecules decay and are replaced by stony material, making the heart completely unresponsive.
From Affliction: Sometimes, repeated trials and hardships, if not met with repentance, can desensitize people, making them more desperate and hard rather than softer, notes The Spurgeon Library. 
The Promise of a New Heart:
God promises to remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh, one that can feel, obey, and love Him, as seen in Ezekiel 36:26 and Jeremiah 31:33. 

(AI Overview) "A heart of flesh", describing a spiritual transformation from a hard, unresponsive "heart of stone" to a soft, tender, sensitive, and obedient one, representing a renewed inner self that is open to God, capable of love, and guided by the Spirit, contrasting with a stubborn or calloused heart. It signifies a life transformed by God's grace, leading to compassion, humility, and a desire to follow divine will. 
Key characteristics of a heart of flesh:
Sensitivity to Sin: Grieves over even small wrongs, unlike a heart of stone that ignores iniquity.
Openness to God: Willing to receive God's word and be led by the Holy Spirit.
Compassion & Love: Able to feel and express love for God and others, showing kindness and empathy.
Humility & Repentance: Prone to confessing sins, seeking forgiveness, and relying on God.
Inner Transformation: The result of God's work, replacing a hard, resistant inner core with responsiveness and life. 
Contrast: It stands in opposition to a "heart of stone," which is stubborn, resistant, and closed to God, as described in Jeremiah 31:33. 
How it's obtained:
It is a gift from God, a work of spiritual regeneration, not achieved by human effort alone.
Receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord brings this new heart and spirit, enabling a life aligned with God's will. 

Let each of us examine our own hearts and allow God to transform our lives for His Glory! 

Ephesians 1:15-23 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of my understanding being enlightened; that I may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward me who believes, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant me, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in my inner man, that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in me, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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