If I Have A New Heart, Then Why Do I Struggle So Much?

We see much teaching about a believer in Jesus having a new heart.

For many believers, the teaching about having a new heart and their daily experience do not match up, since they continue to struggle with sinful thoughts and actions.

This leaves them asking the question, “If I have a new heart, then why do I struggle so much.”

Before answering this question, let’s define what a new heart is.

For the believer, a new heart is a heart that has been completely and eternally cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus.

This person’s heart is permanently purified from all sins.

As a result, this person is holy (pure, – clean heart) and blameless (forgiven, innocent of all sin, not guilty – cleared record) before God.

Because the believer’s heart has been completely cleansed from all sins, God sends the Spirit of Jesus to live in our hearts, enabling us to know God as our loving Father.

The Spirit in us gives a new set a desires.

Desires to live lovingly.

This is called the fruit of the Spirit, which takes time to be produced in our lives as we experience the Father’s love for us.

The Spirit gives us desires to live morally.

Yet many believers wonder why they struggle so much with impure thoughts, attitudes, and actions if they have a new heart.

Some have been miss-taught that if anyone is in Christ, the old way of thinking and living is gone and the new way has come.

This is from 2 Corinthians 5:17.

The old is the old testament (covenant) of law that is gone and the new that has come is new testament (covenant) of grace.

This verse has nothing to do with thinking or morality.

However, many of those who recognize this truth continue to struggle with sinful thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

But why?

If they have a new heart, why do they struggle with old patterns of thinking and living?

Why do they struggle with sinful thoughts and desires?

It’s important to understand that we DO have a new heart and a new identity.

We DO live under the new testament of grace, where all of our sins are forgiven and where we know God personally.

However, we DO NOT have new bodies.

We live in an old body that has sinful desires.

The flesh within us has sinful desires.

We DO NOT have a new mind.

We have an old mind that has sinful thoughts and patterns of thinking.

Some will say that “we have the mind of Christ.”

That is a miss-application of the verse in 1 Corinthians 2:16.

Those who had the mind of Christ were Paul and his companions who were teaching the spiritual truths of grace.

They had the mind of Christ about the spiritual truths of grace, which is what they taught.

We do not have new minds.

Our minds need to be renewed.

Our minds need to be transformed.

This renewal and transformation takes a lifetime and is difficult.

In the world we live, we are bombarded daily with images and messages that infect and affect our minds, which produce harmful desires.

Sometimes we act on these desires and make destructive decisions.

We live in a world that is the perfect environment for the flesh thrive.

Our bodies crave what the world offers.

This is why we struggle.

We have minds that are being renewed.

We live in the old body.

The sinful desires of the flesh are alive and active within us.

We live in a world that where the flesh flourishes – much like a kid (flesh) in a candy shop (world).

The Spirit within us, living in our new hearts, battles with the sinful desires of the flesh within us and the images and messages in the world outside of us.

It is vital to know this, or we will get discouraged.

It is also vital to know that one day we will receive a new body to match our new heart.

These new bodies are not infected by the sinful desires of the flesh.

In these new bodies, we will live on a new earth that is free from the images and messages we see and hear daily.

Until then, the struggle is real.

But the reason we struggle is because we have a new heart.

If we did not have a new heart, we would not struggle.

So don’t think that because you struggle you do not have a new heart.

Know that because you have a new heart, there is a battle between the Spirit and the flesh and between the Spirit and images and messages in the world.

Be encouraged.

You have a new heart.

You live in the new testament of grace, where you are completely cleansed from all sins and fully forgiven of all sins, and where you know God as your loving Father and he knows you as his loved daughter or son in the middle of the struggle.