Weekly Message / Prayer Request

“This is what the LORD says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

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 17:5-10 NIV

We must recognize that our own condition is completely bankrupt without the saving grace of God.

In this passage from the book of Jeremiah, God reveals to us that even the heart is a deceitful creation and beyond cure when it is left to its own devices. Yet the world continues to consider heart above all for almost its entire existence. One only has to listen to the radio to realize how the world values the heart. In fact the Beatles released the song “All we need is love” in 1967 and the world has continued to evolve on this premise every since.

This misguided understanding of the heart continues to happen because the world has not recognized the importance of placing its heart’ in God. It is about making the connection between our heart and God. When our heart is separated from God, it is separated from its ‘life spring’ and will eventually become the stony heart the prophet Ezekiel clearly foretold in Ezekiel 11:19.

In order for us to establish this connection we first must come to a complete understanding upon where our heart stands. Does it stand completely in the world, turned away from Him? Or has our heart been completely placed by confidence in the hands of the Lord? It is one or the other because we cannot serve two masters.

The Apostle Paul understood how important it was to examine our heart and see where it stands in relation to God when he wrote the Church of Corinth:

“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” 1 Corinthians 11:28-31 NIV

God has graciously given us the opportunity to reconnect with Him and place our heart into His open hands every day. He grants this opportunity not only through prayer, but also through the act of communion Paul speaks about here in 1 Corinthians 11. It is an opportunity to reconnect in order to regain the ‘heart of flesh’ God so eagerly desires us to have (Ezekiel 11:19).

Therefore may we examine where we are placing ‘the confidence of the heart’ in our lives. May we live a life that reflects the tree planted by the stream, not living in fear when the heat comes, not worrying in the year of a drought, and always producing fruit. And may we place our heart in Him knowing that we are completely bankrupt without the connection to God, our Savior, through His saving grace…

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Spending time with you each week this past summer has been a blessing on my life and I hope all of you feel the same. I am looking forward to the barbecue tomorrow and getting the opportunity to share an evening of fellowship together…

Over the next few weeks may we dig deeper into the foundational truths of our Christian walk together as brothers in Christ… For all things rest upon foundational truths.