Living and Active

It's because of Francis Chan's talks at the Passion conference that I decided to truly examine my heart as I read scripture this morning. Here's what I found:

It's true: "The Word of God is living and active" (Hebrews 4:12). In reading Jeremiah 6 this morning, I was convicted. Isaiah 29:13 sums up what I realized about myself; it says that "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; their worship of me is made up of only rules taught by men." It seems harsh, but I can't deny that that is where my heart is right now--I am doing many of the "right" things, but I don't "delight [myself] in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4)?

Jeremiah's words are more specific and reveal more about where my heart is:

"They do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. . . They dress [their wound] as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace" (Jer. 5:28, 6:14). Do I advocate and care for people who need help? No, I selfishly leave them behind to get ahead. And I don't look back--I act like it's not a big problem.

And it isn't that I'm doing something bad and need to be better. It's that I'm missing out--I have "forsaken the spring of living water and have dug [my] own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13). I know, as Jeremiah writes, that "[my] sins have deprived [me] of good." In the Lord is true life and joy--and I am seeking that in things other than him!

And on my own, I am stuck--I can't change my heart. But I know that the Lord can, and that is the only hope for me. My prayer is that the Lord would give me an undivided heart, that I may fear his name; that I will delight myself in the Lord and in him find the desires of my heart (Psalm 86:11, 37:4)! All that I want in life can only be found in the Lord!  

And the good news--the GREAT news--is that through Jesus, I am forgiven and can be restored and made new! Because he lived the life I should have lived and died the death I should have died, I am at peace with God. Christ says, "Peace" and there is peace in spite of my sin! He deserves honor and praise!