The Operation of the Heart

In the book of Ezekiel we have this famous passage that promises what the Lord can do for each of us: “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” (Ezekiel 36:26).  Elder Renlund called this “the operation that we all need,” and I think for most of us this is an on-going operation that the Lord seeks to perform throughout our lives (see here).  We often speak in the Church of the different works that we need to perform: paying tithing or serving others or reading the scriptures.  But I think those works are a means to an ultimate end of helping us to permanently change our hearts to become like our Father in Heaven.  Paul taught this in his oft-quoted passage about charity as he said the acts of giving all goods to the poor or giving our body to be burned were not necessarily the same thing as charity itself (see 1 Corinthians 13:3).  At the core charity is more than individual acts of giving or sacrifice; charity is a condition of our heart. 

                And yet at the same time, we have little power to actually change our own heart.  We can change our actions to be consistent with certain principles of the gospel, but by ourselves we can’t make our hearts feel more love or forgiveness or kindness or empathy.  I think what the Book of Mormon powerfully teaches us is that we must come unto Christ with faith and He will change our hearts in His own time through the Spirit.  For example, the people of King Benjamin declared that “the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent… wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2).  They came unto Christ as they listened to and believed the words of King Benjamin, but it was God that wrought the change in their hearts.  And it was because of their “faith on his name” that their hearts could be changed (Mosiah 5:7).  Similarly Alma taught the people of Zarahemla about their own fathers’ change: “Behold, [the Lord] changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God” (Alma 5:7).  Alma emphasized that for his own father it was “according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart” (Alma 5:12).  Again it was faith in Christ that opened the way for the Lord to change the heart.  Samuel the Lamanite taught that for his people they “are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them” (Helaman 15:7).  Faith again was the key factor so that a change could be brought to them from the Lord. 

                One of the most powerful passages in the Book of Mormon about changing our hearts is found in the description of a people who suffered “great persecution” in humility.  Mormon wrote of them in this difficult circumstance, “Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God” (Helaman 3:34-35).  They were changed because they gave their hearts to the Lord completely and, as the angel taught King Benjamin, they did “submit to all things which the Lord” allowed to come upon them (Mosiah 3:19).  Likewise to change our hearts we must ultimately “yield” them unto God so He can perform the operation we all need.  But none of us like the operating table, so He waits until we have the faith to come.