I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT).

In this great endeavour of living, success or failure is centred in the heart. If you want to be successful, if you want fullness of life, you must keep watch over your heart – you must protect it and preserve it – you must control what goes into it and comes out of it – you must shield it and defend it.

Why are so many people depressed? They’ve lost heart. Why are so many people discouraged? They’ve lost heart. Why are so many people sick, worn out, angry, full of shame, or directionless? It’s because they’ve lost heart.

Here’s the one thing the enemy doesn’t want you to know: His strategy is to attack your heart. The devil’s aim is to make you lose heart. He wants to steal your courage, kill your belief, and destroy your love. For the devil knows that without your heart, you don’t have life.

Now here’s the Good News: There is One who has drawn near (cf. Luke 24:15). There’s One walking with you whom you may not have recognized. If I may be permitted to make such an analogy, there’s a “Dorothy” on the yellow brick road and His name is Jesus.

Jesus is holding the oil of life in His hand. He has come to release you and restore you. He has come to pour “out the oil of joy on you” Psalm 45:7 (NLT). He has come to make your face shine (cf. Psalm 104:15). He has come to set your heart free (cf. Psalm 119:32 NIV). It’s phenomenal! The heart of Jesus’ mission is to set your heart free.

Everything Jesus says and does is aimed at giving you fullness of life. Isaiah prophesied to this end. God sent Christ “to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed” Isaiah 61:1 (NLT).

While the devil tries to wound the heart, Christ comes to heal the heart. Come to think of it, that’s an understatement. God gives us more than an upgrade. He gives us a transplant. In Ezekiel 36:26 God says, “I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart” (NLT).

It doesn’t get any better than this! The Wizard of Oz doesn’t begin to compare! When you count yourself dead to sin (cf. Romans 6:11) and ask Christ to come in, you’ll be more than forgiven, and that’s unbelievable in itself, you’ll also be delivered from everything that’s held you back from being all you were meant to be.

Find Christ, I mean truly find Him, and you’ll be free to be what He always meant for you to be.

I know. You thought the Christian thing was about something else. You thought it was about doing good and trying not to sin. But that’s the religious thing. If you thought being a Christian was about looking right, speaking right, eating right, drinking right, smelling right, flossing your teeth right, and all the other rights, then you’re under some sort of a spell. That Wicked Witch, the devil, has enchanted you. For the whole point of your life isn’t about trying harder. The whole point of your life is having your heart set free. The whole point of your life; well it’s living in an intimate, vibrant, powerful and exceptional relationship with Him.

That’s the Good News for today. If you want a heart set free, then God will show you the way of life and the pleasures of living with Him forever (cf. Psalm 16:11). So live the dream. Ask Christ to “take out your stony heart of sin” Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT). Ask Him to set you free. Be everything Christ has planned for you to be.