Thursday, April 3, 2014

Jeremiah 2:20-37



Day 3: Jeremiah 2: 20-37

“Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? Yet for years on end my people have forgotten Me. How do you plot and scheme to win your lovers. Even an experienced prostitute could learn from you!” (Jeremiah 2: 32-33, NLT)

What has replaced your first Love? That is the question that came to mind as I read the verses for today. The interesting thing about the idols that we create is that it’s not the idol itself that pulls us away from God but it is our heart that gravitates towards it. We are the ones that make the choice to turn away from God and entertain the different things of this world. Isn’t it easy to blame it on someone/something else though? Or better yet isn’t it easier to completely deny it and act as though we have not sinned at all. That was where God found fault with Judah! They blatantly denied worshipping idols and turning away from the one true God although they’re faithlessness was so apparent (v. 23, 34-35). How often do people proclaim Christianity yet their lifestyle screams that their hearts are so far away from God? Christians have a tendency to want to portray an image of being perfect people but the truth is if we claim to be without sin we are deceiving ourselves (1 John 1:8). Here’s the thing, sin that goes unacknowledged keeps you from repentance and repentance keeps you from God. As we continue to read Jeremiah, God is going to begin to reveal our hearts to us and the reality is what He reveals may not be pretty but what will we do with it? What will you do when God shows you your heart and the areas that you have fallen short in and where you have turned away from Him? It should lead you towards repentance because that’s the only thing that will remove the weight of condemnation of our sin. 

                The interesting thing however is that if we don’t ignore the sin we usually try to clean up ourselves on our own. Verse 22 says “although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before Me” (NIV). Isn’t it crazy how you can be clean but still not be cleansed? You can do all the cleaning up and getting yourself together all you like but until you turn to Jesus Christ and allow Him to cleanse you from the inside out you’ll never be cleansed. You’ll simply just be doing a bird’s bath cleaning of yourself and missing the spots that are deeply rooted. God wants to cleanse us and remove the stain of guilt but if we refuse to acknowledge our sin we remain bound by it and burdened by the weight of it. All God wanted Judah to do was to turn from their sin and turn to Him but not just when they were in trouble and needed Him to come to the rescue but for good (v. 27). That’s a phony love and a conditional one at that! He wanted their entire hearts regardless of the situations they were in and the same remains for us. For some people, pride is not the issue as to why they have not turned from their sin; denial is not the issue either. It’s that feeling that God doesn’t want you because you’ve done so much wrong. It’s that feeling that you’ve been out in the world for so long that you feel stuck. You feel like every time you try to go forward in God you mess up and go right back to your sin. You think that God is too angry with you that He doesn’t want you as His child anymore. That same God that wanted Judah back in spite of their transgressions is the same God that still wants you. All He needs is for you to make the choice to turn away from what you have placed before Him and go forward in Him. Repentance leads to changed hearts.
I always play worship music in the background when I write and this is the song that was playing as I was writing which I thought was perfect :)


What verse spoke to you the most from this chapter? Be sure to share it to encourage someone else! Tag me so that I can share it as well (IG: @angel_cheron. Twitter: @angelcheron. Facebook: Angel Cheron and add #ChangedHearts #Jeremiah)





**Please note Changed Hearts: Matters of the Heart date has changed from April 5, 2014 to April 19, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!



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