The Daily Voce – January 12, 2026

The Daily Voce – January 12, 2026

The heart of stone had to be broken before the water could flow out to refresh the people. God promises to give His children, His people, a new heart. In Ezekiel 36:26-27 we read, “A 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 a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them.”

In all of our life experiences, God is working on us. If we let Him, if we yield to him, He is breaking our heart of stone and transforming it into a heart of flesh. He is transforming us and giving us a new heart, so that we can love as He would have us love. Not selfishly, for our own desires and needs, but as instruments of Jesus Christ. The same Jesus who humbled Himself to love and save the unlovely, to save the uncomely, the battered and the bruised, to save the broken and the maimed.

Blow by blow, one experience after another, our dear Lord works on our heart of stone. Moses had to smite the rock before the water could pour forth to refresh the people. Even so, God’s chastenings are designed to bring forth good in our lives. The bruising and crushing of the flower brings forth the sweet fragrance of the perfume. In the same manner, the bruising and crushing of our lives is meant to bring forth the sweetness of Jesus in our actions and on our lips.

Lord, help us not to fight the bruising, the crushing by Your hand. Help us to yield to You and allow you full control. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. Help us not to despise Your chastenings, nor faint when we are rebuked of You. Help us to embrace Your judgments. Help us to cling to You in full assurance of faith, that our stony heart may be fully transformed in Your hands into a heart of flesh, a heart able to love as You would have us love. In Jesus’ name, we pray.