By Pastor Naomi Mitchell
Carter County Times
Lisa Osteen Simons said, “Just because some people are fueled by drama does not mean you have to attend their performance. Save the drama for someone else’s momma. Cancel your subscription to their issues.”
Ralph Waldo said, “The only person you become is the person you decide to be.”
I have heard Lonnie Brown say many times over the years, “Don’t let them dictate to you.”
For peace of mind, you must make some “heart” choices.
Let me tell you something about emotions. Emotions can lie. Emotions can overwhelm us, and they can put us in a downward spiral. Feelings come and go. They change with the wind. Listen, feelings may be real, but they are not reliable. Feelings are not facts. Don’t let feelings dictate your life. We walk by faith and not by sight (feelings and emotions). Faith is what the Word has to say and that is what we are to stick to no matter what the heart says, thinks, or feels; unless that heart is in line with the Word of Faith!
In the immediate context of Jeremiah 17:9, God is referring to Judah. Despite God’s commands to Judah, they kept disobeying the Lord. Immediately following Jeremiah 17:9, in verse 10 God says, “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things, which means that our hearts cannot be trusted because they are full of sin. The words of Jeremiah 17:9 is counter-cultural because the 21st century is focused on the manifesto of being “true to yourself” and “following your heart.”
The Word doesn’t tell us to just follow our heart, but God’s.
Romans 1:29–32 says, “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
Romans 3:9–18: “What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written, ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”
Not everyone is so bad doing all these things, but it just lets you know how wicked and deceitful the heart is and can be. The only hope for the sinful human heart is to be supernaturally changed. Jeremiah 31:33 gives the solution. Where sin was once inscribed on the hearts of His people, God provides a new inscription: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Praise God for a new heart in Jesus! Amen! SO BE IT!
JOYFUL House of Prayer, 2519 Quicksand Road, (P.O. Box 856), Jackson, Kentucky 41339. Send Comments/Prayer Requests: Pastornaomi4god@gmail.com. FB: JoyfulHoprayer. Services: 10am Sunday and 6:30pm Thursdays. Radio Broadcast: WJSN 97.3 FM Sundays 1-2pm.
