Seeking Jesus First Apr. 24, 2025
Have you ever deceived yourself? Believe it or not, it is easy to do.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 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.” (Jeremiah 17:7–10, NKJV)
If we do not trust The LORD enough to stay rooted and grounded in His love and in His Word, our own heart will justify the things we want to do. The heart is deceitful above all things, and it will find a way to do what we want to do. However if we keep our eyes on Christ and on the perfect law of liberty, we will stop deceiving ourselves. If we are finding ways to not obey God’s words, we are deceiving ourselves. Jesus admonished us to abide in Him and let His words abide in us. This is the way to keep our heart honest.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22–25, NKJV)
When we continue in His word (that means meditating, speaking and doing), we will be blessed in what we do. Remember, the blessing is not button in heaven that God pushes. The blessing is inside the word that God spoke, just like the DNA of an apple is in an apple seed. You will get to eat the apple after the tree is mature and producing apples. The blessing of God is on those who do His word, because God’s blessing is in His word.
Let’s stop deceiving ourselves and obey God (keep His word).