God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Nothing else but the habitual and predominant devotion and dedication of soul, and body, and life, and all that we have to God; and esteeming and loving, and serving, and seeking Him, before all the pleasures and prosperity of the flesh.
What once bothered us doesn't bother us anymore. What once activated our conscience doesn't seem to anymore. What we knew was outside of God’s boundaries, and therefore functionally outside of ours, lives inside our boundaries, and it doesn’t matter to us anymore. It is a scary place to be. The hard heart is a stony heart. It is not malleable anymore. It’s hard and resistant to change, no longer tender and responsive to the squeeze of the hands of the Spirit. There is evil in our hearts and in the acts of our hands, and we’re okay with it. Could there be a more dangerous place for a believer to be?
