Spiritual Strength For Each Day
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart…” (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
The question of the condition of our hearts is decisive where the effect of the Word of God in us is concerned. Often we do not know our own hearts, but the Lord knows! Now comes the question of how we receive the Word of God. Have you, have I, removed all defiance, despondency and sin out of our hearts before we begin to read the Word of God? James 4:7-8 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” These are the four things that the Lord requires of us. Notice the sequence and obey them, or you will be deceiving yourself when you read the Word of God. First, resist the enemy in the name of Jesus; second, draw near to God; third, cleanse yourself in the precious blood of the Lamb; and fourth, purify your deceitful heart.
If you do this, the field of your heart will be prepared, just as the Lord Jesus says in the parable of the sower. If you refuse to do it, you are deceiving yourself. James 1:26 warns us, “…this man’s religion is [in] vain.”
