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Friday, April 20, 2018

Is your heart healthy?


The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?Jeremiah 17:9 [NKJV]

Summarize in a Word: Heart Diagnosis
Principle: God knows us through and through
Application: Surrender yourself to God
Main point of the Passage: We desperately need a new heart to live an obedient life
Exhortation: Always find sufficiency and satisfaction in God.

I bumped into a group of youngsters smoking secretly. One of them reacted, “I know what is good and what is bad for me. Don’t even try to teach me.” The world likes to be free from any authority and live any lifestyle.
Most people believe they are good, and even claim that the basic nature of man is good, yet spend no time in proving it even once.  The biblical term “heart” refers to our inner nature and its functions – thoughts, emotions, and wills. It is the faculty that we plan, remember, and determine to do anything. Scripture diagnoses the nature of the heart as deceitful, deceitful than anything else. We are corrupt, cunning and wicked. It means we tend to believe, like, and love the very opposites we should not. We deceived not only ourselves but also we try to deceive others and even God.
The heart is not only deceitful but it is desperately sick. It has the idea of beyond curable, irreparable. It is doomed. It always will be deceitful. We cannot improve ourselves. We will continue to choose our own way justifying ourselves and fooling others. What happens when we go on our ways? It is cursed, and of no prospect (Jer. 17.5-6). Moreover, God is going to judge everything accordingly (v10).
So, how does one live a righteous life? One must have a new heart. The Holy Spirit gives a new heart when one surrenders to Christ. Prophet Jeremiah is calling his hearers to turn away from their sinful ways, and to stop putting their hope on the schemes of man. Always find sufficiency and satisfaction in God.
Thanks for the time of Reflection,
R. Solomon