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 an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:26-28
In the 1980s, Claire Sylvia became the first person in New England to receive a successful combined heart and lung transplant. She suffered from pulmonary hypertension, and doctors said that the transplant was her only hope. As she began her recovery after the successful surgery, Sylvia discovered something unexpected. In her book A Change of Heart, she related how she found herself craving foods like peppers and chicken nuggets that she had never liked before. When she tracked down the family of the young man whose heart and lungs she had received after his death in a motorcycle accident, they told her that those were among his favorite foods. In fact, he even had a box of chicken nuggets in a pocket when he had his wreck. Sylvia concluded that, with her new heart, she had received new appetites as well.
When we come to Christ for salvation, accepting His free offer of grace, we receive a new heart and a new set of desires. The old sinful nature is still present, but we have different desires and appetites. When we were lost the things of God did not appeal to us, but after salvation that changed. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:2-3). The more we fill our hearts and minds with the Word of God the less appealing the things of the world will be to us.
