We Can Be Changed By The Lord: ‘I Will Give You A New Heart.’

Jeremiah 12:1-17
‘“If any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it”, declares the Lord’(17). We must not look out to the world and say, ‘That’s what’s happening “out there”’. We must look into our own hearts. We must ask, ‘What’s happening “in here”?’. We are to pray, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart’(Psalm 139:23). When the searchlight of God’s Word begins to shine on our lives, it becomes clear that ‘all is not as it seems’: ‘They speak well of You with their lips, but their hearts are far from You’(2). Our situation seems hopeless. We cannot change ourselves: ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil’(13:23). There is a Word of hope. We can be changed by the Lord: ‘I will give you a new heart’(Ezekiel 36:26).

Jeremiah 13:1-27
‘These wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them will be... completely useless’(10). Are you on the way to becoming ‘completely useless’? Each of us must think about what’s been happening in our lives? - ‘Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus and His Word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void the world can never fill’. We need to pray for real change. We need to pray for ‘a closer walk with God’: ‘Return, O Holy Dove!... The dearest idol I have known... Help me to tear it from Thy throne, and worship only Thee. So shall my walk be close with God...’(Church Hymnary, 663).
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Blessings in Christ
Christ in all the Scriptures
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