According to the heart’s desires

We love being on our own so much. Let us make our own destiny and fate. Let us be the ones to choose the course of our lives and not have to listen to what others want. Let’s enjoy the moment and not think too much about what’s next…

Studying the book of Jeremiah, I saw that the people of Israel enjoyed this kind of life, turned their backs on God, and each followed the desires of their evil hearts. In the first 24 chapters of Jeremiah alone, the word heart is mentioned 39 times. The problem of the people’s sin was their evil heart.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your hearts, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else My wrath will spread like fire and burn with no one to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds. (Jeremiah 4:4 NASB)

Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you? (Jeremiah 4:14 NASB) 

God prophesies through the prophet Jeremiah the punishment of the inhabitants of the land for their disobedience and rebellion for many years, warning them for decades of the approaching calamity, but the people did not obey! Why?

But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and departed. They do not say in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God, Who gives rain in its season, both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest. (Jeremiah 5:23-24 NASB)

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they went backward and not forward. (Jeremiah 7:24 NASB)

The heart of man who deviates from God is so evil, it is filled with sin, and he does not want to acknowledge God’s authority, nor does he want to accept the consequences of his wickedness. People live relaxed, prosper in their wickedness and say that everyone has their own justice and has the right to do what they want. Is that so?!

I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, to give to each person according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. (Jeremiah 17:10 NASB)

In His Faithfulness and Justice, God says that everyone will reap the fruits, the consequences of his conduct sooner or later, and this justice does not bypass anyone. God is not biased like humans and has no favorites. His Word is fulfilled exactly.

Knowing the example of the people of Israel, let us think about what kind of heart we have. Do we want to listen to God’s Word or do we like to follow our heart’s evil intentions? I would like each of us to pray in the words of the psalmist:

Search me, God, and know my heart; put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalms 139:23-24 NASB)

May God help us to have a heart that no longer follows sin and wickedness, but a pure heart, washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, which is totally dedicated to God, who gathers His Word so as not to sin against the Lord. So may God help each of us.

Translated by Didina Vicliuc