{"id":47,"date":"2026-01-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/?p=47"},"modified":"2026-01-02T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:00:00","slug":"a-soft-heart-before-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/?p=47","title":{"rendered":"A Soft Heart Before God"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 dir=\"auto\">Key Scripture:<\/h5>\n<p dir=\"auto\" class=\"body-large\"><em>&#8220;I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; <span><strong>Ezekiel 36:26<\/strong><\/span><strong> (NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5 dir=\"auto\">Reflection:<\/h5>\n<p dir=\"auto\" class=\"body-large\">God promises to replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh. A heart of flesh is not fragile, it is responsive, teachable, and alive to God.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\" class=\"body-large\">Hardness often grows quietly through disappointment, unconfessed sin, or prolonged offence. If you feel cold toward God or indifferent toward others, that is a signal to return to Him honestly.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\" class=\"body-large\">A softened heart comes through humility, repentance, and renewed trust in the Father\u2019s goodness. God is not reluctant to restore tenderness; He delights to do it.<\/p>\n<h5 dir=\"auto\">Prayer:<\/h5>\n<p dir=\"auto\" class=\"body-large\">Father, soften my heart where it has grown resistant. Remove what is stony in me and make me responsive to Your Spirit again. Amen.<\/p>\n<h5 dir=\"auto\">Today\u2019s Action Step:<\/h5>\n<p dir=\"auto\" class=\"body-large\">Ask God, \u201cWhere have I become hardened?\u201d Write what comes to mind and pray over it honestly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Scripture: &#8220;I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.&#8221; &#8211; Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV) Reflection: God promises to replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh. A heart of flesh is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotionals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.illuminatedgospel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}