Proclamation:
"The heart is deceitful above all things and
beyond cure. Who can understand it? 'I, The Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.' " Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NIV)
Explanation:
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote
these words under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God. Jeremiah was primarily concerned with the
judgement of Judah. He told the people
that God would judge each of them by examining their hearts and thoughts to
determine their motives. They would then
be rewarded or punished by God based upon what they deserved according to their
thoughts, words, and deeds.
Application:
This same truth applies to
us today. Man can only evaluate the
words, actions and outward appearance of a person. The Lord God can search the heart and mind of
a person and judge their true inner nature. God sees each of us like no one else can see
us, twenty-four hours of each day for seven days of each week. He sees all of our actions, hears all of our
spoken words, and He knows all of our thoughts.
When we say 'God knows my heart,' He really does. We tend to use those words as an excuse when
our behavior and our words are inconsistent, as if to say that we should be
judged by our intentions which only God knows.
What we do not realize is that our heart is much more deceitful than we
want to admit. Our thoughts, motives,
and intentions are not always honorable or Christ-like. We should remember this when we pray and ask our
Heavenly Father to forgive us of our sins.
We should also ask Him to create within us a clean heart and renew a
right spirit within us. (Psalm 51:10)
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