How about your heart?
Jeremiah 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
With no need for emphasis, we know God is a holy God. If you really believe in the God of heaven, you’ll know he is a holy God. Our conscience says so, the Bible says so, even the firmament of the heavens declare the purity and majesty of God’s holiness. And God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.
During the antediluvian age, when God saw the wickedness of man that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, it grieved him at his heart. It was a sad sight, and very offensive to God’s holy eye.
It was the bitter root, the corrupt spring: all the violence and oppression, all the luxury and wantonness that was in the world, proceeded from the corruption of nature: lust conceives them. The heart was evil, deceitful and desperately wicked; the principles were corrupt, and the habits and dispositions evil. And the Bible says, “it grieved him at his heart.”
But please understand that, this expression was after the manner of men, and must be understood, so as not to reflect upon God’s immutability and felicity. Nothing can cause disturbance to the eternal mind. But it speaks about his just and holy displeasure against sin. And this wicked heart of mischief still remains in man today.
Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” That’s why the heart needs to be changed, and sanctified.
There are many people who know the condition of their hearts that it has not been touched by the divine grace of sanctification. Yet they still think they can serve God, even in that adamic, corrupt, sinful heart, still get to heaven. Do you remember Amaziah, king of Judah, who did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart? Here is the need of sanctification!
Instead of you to be repenting everyday, and always saying, “God I’m sorry, forgive me, crying, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Why not bring that heart by faith to the LORD for a second touch of grace called sanctification?
If the heart is not clean, if the heart is not pure, if the heart is not sanctified, if the heart is not purified, there is still hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
How about your heart?
Is it right with God? That’s the thing that counts today. Is it black by sin? or is it pure within? Won’t you ask Christ in today? Come to the cross by faith, and let the LORD touch your heart. Either by the blood or by fire, and purify your heart and cleanse it from all sin.
Remember, without this inward sanctification of the heart, which makes us elect of the kingdom, our service will be superficial, and when it is tried by the fire, it will be burnt up, and not rewarded. Therefore, if there’s anything you should desire above all things, it should be sanctification, purification, the cleansing of the heart, and the holiness of life without which no man shall see the Lord.
Reagan Azoyenime is a born again Christian and an undergraduate student of Ambrose Ali University, Nigeria. He writes edifying Christian messages centred on salvation in Christ and holiness.
E-mail: razoyenime@gmail.com
