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)**
Our hearts can be so hard and deceptive and their natural propensities to be so are often strengthened through our ease and prosperity. It is difficult to get our attention when things are going swimmingly well for us, is it not? We so often begin thinking “We got this!” Until hardships and afflictions strike and the showers of adversity come along and then we begin singing quite another song entirely. We become more attentive to God and less to the glitz and glitter and noise of this shiny world. Our needs become greater when trials and adversities begin to roll in - and let’s face it, who does not have them? These are often used by the hand of our gracious Father to wake us up to what is truly within these stinking hearts of ours, and to seek to get us to look up, depend upon Him and follow His leading. It is He Who helps us. His great desire is for us to be like our older Brother and that should be our great desire as well.
When we are pinched and pricked, all sorts of things can come bubbling forth and they can often be quite disturbing. Anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language on our lips can rise in our hearts and demonstrate in our words and actions or at the very least in our thoughts in a nano second. Not a pretty picture, to say the least. BTW, this gives us eyes to see what we truly adore and value. Honestly, it is not too difficult to discern what we highly esteem by simply looking at how we spend our resources of time and money. Are we whiling away our time? Are we spending or investing our money?
God knows full well, in trials and afflictions, we are in a better position to hear and to be responsive to His divine teaching and leading. Unfortunately, we so often have to learn on a field trip in lieu of a classroom, Amen? God desires for us to draw near to Him. He wants to rid us of these unwanted character flaws. And we are enabled to do so through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit which every child of the King possesses. God wants to make us like Jesus and He goes to great extremes to do so. Remember, if we are still walking on this earth, He is still working on us.
During these times, may we have the grace of God to pray and plead with Him as King David did after his fall with Bathsheba. He writes in Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV): “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” He who sincerely offers up this prayer proves his honesty by going through the prescribed means through which God works. Our brokenness leads to repentance which leads to our healing. We must kill the lusts that breaks our communion with the Lord Jesus by being much in prayer and seeking to live consistently on God’s Word. Also, we are to be vigilant against future uprisings of sin in our hearts and lives, and be uber careful to do things that will foster our faith walks.
He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” Mark 7:20-23 (NIV)