Allowing the Lord to circumcise your heart gives you new heartskin.
Allowing Him to touch your heart and rub His ointment on it gives you new heartskin. Baring your heart to His cleansing, healing touch is allowing Him to soften and soothe it. A soft heart has new heartskin that isn’t hardened by sin, grief, idolatry, bitterness, resentment, or unforgiveness.
When I say “new heartskin,” I’m really talking about the state of your heart and how it affects your relationship with God.
Do you feel disappointed with Him, with yourself, or with others? Are you hurting because you have unanswered prayers and you don’t understand why? Are you struggling to forgive someone who hurt you and feeling distant from the Lord because of it?
Your answers reveal the state of your heart, and that’s what determines when you need new heartskin.
In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses tells the Israelites to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.”
Being stiff-necked is having old heartskin, which is a hard heart that’s tough, stubborn, and rebellious. Being willing to bow to the Lord and obey Him is the first step to softening a hard heart. I can’t open my heart to the Lord and receive from Him if my heart is hard and cold, and neither can you.
Deuteronomy 30:6 says, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
My heart comes alive when the Lord gives me new heartskin.
Loving the Lord with all my heart is giving Him all of my heart. That means giving Him every wound, offence, grudge, bitterness, resentment, hatred, and unforgiveness. It means giving Him every broken, dark, twisted emotion lurking in my heart, because the only way to love Him fully is to withhold nothing at all. And it takes surrender to be willing to be that raw and transparent.
The Lord desires to be close to me. He’s always willing to draw me nearer to Himself, but I have to be willing to come to Him and not hide. When I come, He will heal me, bless me, love me, restore me, and give me a clean heart. Running only makes the pain worse and draws out the process. Jesus wants me close so He can love me and heal my heart.
The same is true for you too.
The Lord wants to love you. He wants to heal you, restore you, and breathe life into you. But having a hard heart blocks you and slows you down. Because honestly? You don’t need closure, answers, or anything else you feel you need that you don’t have yet. You need His love and His touch, because in the end, He’s all that matters.
It’s accepting the truth of His love and His Word that heals you, not getting everything you want exactly when you want it. This is what softens your heart to Him. This is what allows His Word to take root in your heart again and bear good fruit.
You can’t afford old heartskin that’s impenetrable to His Word, because then you’re also closed off from the life in His Word.
How can you grow and flourish without His life in you?
New heartskin allows me to be joyous, joyful, and nourished by the joy I have in Jesus. New heartskin makes my heart a garden, the garden of His delight, which makes me lush, fruitful, and fragrant. New heartskin means I have a new heart full of love.
In the end, the Lord wants you and me to live. Loving Him with all our hearts and souls is how we do that (remember Deuteronomy 30:6?). Having new heartskin is what lets His love in so our love can pour out.
If you’re struggling with a hard heart today, I pray that His love touches you. I pray that He heals the hurt and gives you the grace to forgive. And I pray that you rise above the pain so you can come out of that grave and bless the Lord anyway.
Because what’s ahead of you is too great to sacrifice to the pain of your past.
Thanks Otiti, Bongie here, indeed i have a new heartskin, i have read and understood. thank you so much, i trust and believe you have been well.
Bongani!!! HI! So good to hear from you. I thank God for restoring your heart and making it soft again! And it’s well with my soul, thank you. He’s been faithful. 🙂
This is so important, so true, and so beautifully written!! I’m praying that your writing will be found by all those who need to hear it. I believe there are many who do.
This truly blessed me. Thank you, Otiti, for putting this in writing and sharing it with us. Blessings, Cari
Thank you, Cari! I thank the Lord for giving me the words to say. I’m so glad it blessed you. May we live with softer hearts before Him all our days.
And you’re welcome. It’s an honour to share with you and everyone else. 🙂