Daily Devotion (August 26, 2024)
Jeremiah 17:9–10 (NKJV)
9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?
10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
We look at the outward actions of people. God looks at the heart.
A life without God is deceitful and wicked. All one must do is watch the news, look at how television programs and movies over the decades have become increasingly degenerate. Morality in America has reached down to a new low. The portrayal of the church in America in part is increasingly about entertainment than worship. Sex has become more of a god.
Idolatry, pride, and spiritual apathy have grown over the last decades to the point of infecting the lives of people with a spiritual death blow. God is no longer the pinnacle of people’s thoughts. God has been replaced by materialism, self-worship, and the creation of God that fits a persons own personal desires. We now live in a world of self-centered pride. We place self above God. Instead of God being the center of our lives we place self and selfish ambition above God.
And then there is Spiritual Apathy. We profess God as the Lord of our lives with our lips, but our hearts are turned away from Him. By its very nature, the heart is devious, desperately wicked, depraved, and inwardly corrupt. Without God we choose the wrong path in life, sin. The heart without God is not good.
Is there hope? Yes! But it takes the church focused upon Christ to bring about that hope. God works through His people.
The church founded on the principles of God has the potential to bring about positive change to America. The church must once again become followers and teachers of Jesus. We must move from being ego-centric to being Christ centered. The church needs to stop hiding behind its own walls and must realize we are to be missionaries to our own community. The church MUST encourage moral and ethical living. Christ must be the center of the church!