Have you heard of the phrase “Pusong mamon?” Puso is Filipino term for heart; mamon means chiffon cake. It is a Filipino colloquial for ‘compassionate heart.’ A person who has a pusong mamon is sensitive or soft-hearted; maawain – tenderhearted, charitable and compassionate. On the other hand, pusong-bato is the ‘stony’ heart – hard-hearted – one who shows no sympathy to others.
What kind of heart a person has determines how he relates to another. A soft-hearted person empathises with other people who are in pain or suffering. A hard-hearted person does not care less. A heart of stone is one who does not feel – it is dead and unresponsive to anything or anyone.
Sinful human beings are unresponsive to God – their stony hearts are dead in sins. Sin is disobedience to God. When Israel disobeyed God in their idolatrous ways, God sent prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel to pronounce judgements on their rebellious ways. These prophets predicted doom and exile for them.
Yet amidst the judgment and prophecies of dark times, God promised them restoration. God assured them that He will turn their stony hearts to hearts of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.
Jeremiah 24:7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Application:
1) Renewal: God alone can turn our pusong-bato to pusong-mamon. Our dead and callous heart cannot respond to God’s call to be good and do good. God himself initiates to restore our hard-hearted nature to the original state he created us.
2) Response: God calls for us to walk in His ways with a heart of flesh. A heart of flesh enables us to respond to God’s call. A heart of flesh is sensitive to God’s ways. We are no longer stubborn and hard-hearted. A heart of flesh beats with the heart of God – oneness with God and newness in God.
3) Relationship: God initiates to be our God and we will be His people. This is a two-way street – God and people; His people and their God. There is a possession – His and theirs. A heart of flesh comes from God and belongs to the people because the people belong to God and God belongs to His people.What kind of heart is in me? How do I respond to God? Who is God to me? Who am I to God?
If my heart is hard, let God renew me and restore my heart of stone into a heart of flesh.
If my heart is unresponsive, let God give me a heart to know Him that I may be sensitive to His call – to walk in his ways.
With a heart of flesh, a God-restored heart, I’m God’s and God is mine. Amen.
