After getting out of my bible reading routine (and consequently becoming distanced from Him) I opened the Word of God today with a receptive heart and he has spoken so clearly through Jeremiah 17...
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land." vs 5-6
This pretty much explains the place I have been in for many months now... looking to people for help, love and acceptance. Of course these are things that can only be perfectly done by God alone. No one else can fill my deepest desires or answer my prayers.
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat come,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit." vs 7-8
This is the place I long to be in! A tree nourished by living waters that remains unharmed no matter what the weather conditions throw at it. Roots that go so deep that nothing can move it ever.
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds." vs 9-10
I cannot trust myself and the ever fleeting emotions that come and go. My heart is "desperately sick" and the only cure is my Lord Jesus coming in and taking His rightful place in my heart. Ah the beauty of having a heart beating in tune with His own... May this always be my aim, each and every day. Now that my bible is open once again I hope it never closes and I long to drink in the delights and chastisement needed to refine and purify my wicked being to be perfected in Him.
"A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary...
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise." vs 12, 14
"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14
