HE KNOWS!

     You and I often hear people say, ‘Well—God knows my heart.’  I often wonder if they’re using the phrase to compensate for living life on their own terms, or to justify what they suspect (in their heart) may not be a godly attitude or course of action.  Perhaps the phrase is spoken to pacify what could be a willful ignorance about what God requires.  I’m convinced that this last reason is quite common.

    He tells us in His word that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Who can know it?  (Jer. 17:9   NASB)  God certainly does, and He has a lot to say about willfully ignorant and rebellious hearts.  In Isaiah 6:9-13, God declares His awareness of people whose hearts have “hardened beyond repentance,” due to a chronic rebelliousness against His word.  That He has reportedly been known to abandon such chronically rebellious and hardened hearts is a frightening truth, reflecting His judgment of such unrepentant heart attitudes!  “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy,” says Proverbs 29:1.  Lest one believes that such judgment is confined to the Old Testament, notice our Lord’s response to willful rebellion in Romans 1: 24-28, where the phrase, “God gave them over…” to their heart-rebellion and disobedience is mentioned three times!

    Prayerfully, such HABITUAL willful defiance and heart-insensitivity to God’s holiness does not typify those who’ve received Christ as Lord of every area of their life.  Through a daily acknowledgment of His presence, we can rest assured that because of our Lord’s omniscience and sovereignty, there is no trial, besetting sin struggle, or set of circumstances through which He cannot bring us victoriously!  Oh, praise the LORD for Philippians 1:6!  A steadfast practice of His presence cultivates within us a deeper appreciation of His marvelous grace.

PRAYER:  Holy Father, thank You for Your revealed word that tells us plainly what our hearts are really like and how it is that we can truly repent Your name be praised!  In Christ’s name, Amen!
By Sis. Denise Diggs