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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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Jeremiah 2:1-19



Day 2: Jeremiah 2: 1-19

“My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Jeremiah is now reflecting on how Israel forsake God even though He delivered them out of Egypt and provided them with everything that they needed. The picture is painted of how God did everything for them and He even proposes the question “what fault did your ancestors find with Me that caused you to stray so far away from Me?” (v. 5) The answer is nothing; God showed Himself to be faithful and constant yet they rebelled against Him. You can imagine God thinking I don’t get it! People who worship gods that aren’t even gods at all remain faithful to these things even though they do absolutely nothing for them yet My people have exchanged Me to worship false idols (v11). Those same idols that did not deliver them out of Egypt, that did not provide them with manna from heaven, that did not part the red sea when Pharaoh’s army came to kill them. Yet they turned away from the very God that did to worship a god that didn’t. Crazy, right?   

As we read through the next couple of chapters on the unfaithfulness of both Judah and Israel it’s important to not just look and them and go ugh they’re so trifling and I can’t believe they did God like that! The reality is that we are all in the same boat or have been in the same boat as far as rebelling against God and being unfaithful towards Him. The importance of reading this is to learn from their mistakes and to understand the importance of repentance for our sin. As I looked down at the note in my life application study bible for verse two it said “Think about your original commitment to obey God, and ask yourself if you are remaining truly devoted.” Can you say heart and life check?!? Are we remaining truly devoted to the commitment that we made to God or have we, just as the Israelites, exchanged our God for the gods of this world (money, people, jobs, material things, etc.)? As long as we’re chasing after the things of this world we will continue to come up empty. God said “my people have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Don’t you get it? Everything that you try to do outside of God it just won’t work. The thing about broken cisterns is that they have cracks so no matter how much water you put into it won’t last because it will continue to leak and it will eventually come up empty. You will waste your time continuing to add water to it only for it to continue to come up empty. You’ll continue to put time into that relationship that doesn’t honor God and it seems like you keep investing time, money, and energy yet you keep coming up empty. You continue to put in all this time and effort at a job yet you still don’t feel satisfied. You keep giving and pouring into things and people but it seems like you give and give and give but you continue to come up empty and you just don’t get it. A broken cistern can’t hold water; until you stop trying to take matters into your own hands and until you learn to be obedient to God and allow Him to be the spring of living water in your life you will continue to come up empty.


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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Monday, March 31, 2014

Jeremiah 1

Day 1: Jeremiah 1: 1-19
 
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

It’s funny how we can desire for God to show us our purpose but just as soon as He does we hit the brakes and go wait what? God, I think You meant that for someone else because there is no way that I am capable of doing this! You can only imagine what Jeremiah’s thoughts were as God not only tells him that He created him to be a prophet but also that he is to go and share the message of God’s wrath to the people of Judah. Jeremiah immediately looks to his own limitations (v.6) and begins to tell God why he can’t do it. We so often give God this laundry list of why we can’t walk in the calling He has for our life because we don’t think we’re capable of doing it. The truth is a lot of us have convinced ourselves that we can’t do certain things because other people, not God remind you, told you that you wouldn’t be able to or that you weren’t good enough. They told you you’re too young, you’re too old, you’re too uneducated, you don’t look the part, you can’t because your momma or your daddy didn’t, you don’t have the money to do it, you don’t have the skill….and the list goes on and on and on. Look, at some point you have to tell people to take their mouth off of you! They can think and say whatever they want to but what did God say? Stop allowing unqualified people to speak into your life and simply allow the word of God to be your point of reference for what you are capable of doing!

As the Lord reveals to Jeremiah the different things that are going to happen to Judah due to their disobedient (v. 11-16) He also reminds him of something very important. He reminds Jeremiah that as he prophesies the Lord’s wrath on these people that they will fight against him. He didn’t say they might fight against you, they may or may not like you, they may receive you, I don’t really know just go in and see. No, God gave Jeremiah a sure word that they will fight against Him but the follow up was also a sure word and that is “but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee” (v.19). Don’t be afraid to face opposition in doing what God has called you to do or to say. People may fight against you, but they won’t take you out. They may talk about you, but their words won’t prevail. They may hate you and the God that you serve, but they will not overtake you. Stand firm in the midst of opposition and keep doing what God has called you to do. Stop waiting for everyone to be okay with what God has called you to do! Everybody won’t get it, like it, or believe in it; that’s their problem not yours.  

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! I will be sharing the new date and time later this week.** Changed Hearts: I AM Woman: Woman 2 Woman will still be April 12, 2014 @ 10:00 a.m.!


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Thursday, March 27, 2014

But Did You Take It To God First?



There’s a purpose in this long story so just bear with me. I get home from work yesterday and get on my laptop and I watch a video from Heather Lindsey on YouTube about this year’s pinky promise conference (last year’s was amazing, you don’t want to miss it this year if you can go). I close out of it and my computer screen starts showing yellow blotches…hmh that’s weird. So I figured I just needed to restart it and it would be fine. Yeah no…it now proceeds to turn green! So I say hmh well let me shut it down, take the battery out, and let it sit for a minute. Go back to it later, not only is it now pink and green the screen has doubled so now it is two of my desktop and everything that I open. I immediately think oh gosh this isn’t good! I have homework to do on Thursday and a paper that I have to work on that’s due Sunday but I have to work on it prior to Sunday because I have plans for the weekend, I have to get these videos together for the conferences, I have to do this, that, and the forth. Now read that as fast as you can without taking a breath and that is how it was running through my mind. So needless to say I’m stressing just a tad!

I go to Walmart’s website on my phone to see what they had that I could pick up right then because I couldn’t wait the 3-6 business days for it to ship, I needed it now. I find one that I’m going to order simply because it’s the cheapest and let’s be real I’m not balling out the park so it’s not like I have a couple hundred dollars laying around to buy a new laptop spur of the moment. I screenshot it and send it to my sister because she’s a computer person and she tells me not to get it because the operating system was something weird. As I’m scrolling through the laptops that are in stock and what she advised me to go with, all I see are the prices going up…and up…and up and my stress is going up…and up…and up. I finally order one and it’s in stock at my local Walmart but it’s late at this point so I said I’ll just pick it up today on my lunch break. Not even a ½ hour later, I get an email saying I’m sorry that laptop is actually out of stock and your order has been cancelled. Really though…

I say to myself okay God, I’m going to take my hands off of it and let you take care of it. Not even an hour later I’m back on my phone searching for another laptop aka not taking my hands off of it and not letting God handle it. I order a second laptop and once again it says it’s in stock and can be picked up the next day at my local Walmart. I wake up this morning to a second email that once again says j/k we lied to you, this one ain’t in stock either. So now I’m a little irritated, okay a lot irritated, one at the fact that my laptop has given up the ghost and is donezo and two that Walmart keeps telling me that they have these laptops in stock that they actually don’t! Nonetheless, I order a third laptop because I need it and I can’t wait for it to ship 3-6 business days. You got it, not in stock sorry your order has been cancelled. At this point I’m thinking Walmart are you trying to make me lose my Jesus today??? Are you really trying to make me lose all of my salvation because this has just crossed the point of ridiculousness!

I’m getting ready for work and I just have an attitude; I’m in my feelings. As I’m driving to work God puts in my heart Israel Houghton’s song Jesus at the center of it all. You cannot have an attitude with that song playing in your spirit. You cannot be stressed out with “from my heart to the heavens Jesus be the center, it’s all about You” playing in your heart on repeat. I texted my best friend and tell her about all the shenanigans and I thought okay God what do you want me to do? The real question that was proposed however is why didn’t you come to Me first? Insert big eyed emoji!!!! God showed me that I went all around Him trying to find the solution on my own but never turned to Him initially to give me the answer. So now I’m left frustrated and irritable when all along all I had to do was to turn to the One who always had the solution. God showed me that while Jesus at the center was playing in my heart I was at peace and I wasn’t stressed out about it. He reminded me that we don’t have to wait for the solution to be found in order for the stress to leave or for us to have peace. It’s when we go to Him first, He can provide us with the peace even when we don’t have the solution yet. But we spend all this time trying to figure it out ourselves and we get frustrated when we fail…miserably. 

I order a fourth laptop now…I place my order and I don’t get a confirmation receipt like I did for the others. I think okay that’s weird but we’re not going to stress about it. An hour goes by and I’m waiting to receive an email, still no email. So now I’m just expecting to receive another email saying gotcha again fool out of stock! A couple of hours go by, nothing. I thought you know what if it’s not in stock I’m not going to worry about it, I’ll just wait the 3-6 business days for it to ship and it will work itself out. I go on my lunch break and ten minutes later I get a confirmation email that my order is ready for pick up. I share this really long story to say that we can’t say that we’re giving our problems and situations to God but also keeping our hands all up and in it. This reminded me of when I first started driving and my mom would hold the steering wheel from the passenger seat! We say we’re letting Jesus take the wheel but it’s really like we just want Him to be in control of the gas and the breaks but we still want to take control of the direction that we’re going by holding on, tightly might I add, to the steering wheel. At some point we have to let go of trying to figure out on our own and learn how to take it to God first. No matter how big or small it may seem, take it to God first. When we try to figure it out ourselves it’s like saying to God that we have more faith in ourselves than we do Him. We trust ourselves more than we trust Him to take care of us and to fix it. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Proverbs 3:5-6 says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Go to Him first and allow Him to be the director of your life as you take the backseat.

 

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