Jeremiah 7-9

Day 221 Jeremiah 7 5 Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors,6 only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods -7 only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple. Only once we clean up our act will God move into our neighborhood - our hearts. But how do we know when that happens? There is soooo much distance between God and where my sinful heart lies. We are not made to be perfect, for perfection is reserved for God only. However, if we refuse to acknowledge our sin, and refuse to make any attempt to let it go, there is no room for God to move in. God designed our hearts to only serve one being - Him. When we fill our hearts with other things - money, alcohol, sex, cards, whatever - we crowd Him out and don't leave Him enough room to grow and take over. We need to perform a total spring cleaning - get rid of all of that other junk - in order to allow Him to take over our hearts. 19 "But is it me they're hurting?" God's Decree! "Aren't they just hurting themselves? Exposing themselves shamefully? Making themselves ridiculous? The answer is BOTH. We do hurt ourselves by separating ourselves from God. In Him we have eternal life. In Him we have love and joy and truth and light. But He has us, too. He loves to love us, just as we love to love our children. I didn't really know what it meant to love God until I became a mother. Holding my babies, pouring love over them, rejoicing in their triumphs, and comforting them in their fears and hurts ... that is how God loves us, and when we turn from Him, and fill our hearts with all of that other JUNK, it hurts Him, too. 4 "Tell them this, God's Message: "'Do people fall down and not get up? Or take the wrong road and then just keep going?5 So why does this people go backwards, and just keep on going-backwards! They stubbornly hold on to their illusions, refuse to change direction. It is soooo easy to fall to our stubbornness and harden our hearts against what God wants for us. When we're stuck in our own misery, it takes a huge change of heart to get us out, and that is the only thing that works. I've been happy in my misery at times. I think most of this last year I've been stuck in my own personal quagmire of bitterness - as much as I hate to admit it. But I haven't given up hope, because I know that I can work my way out of it, even if it takes longer than I'd like... So many things are running through my mind today, the last day of 2011. This past year has certainly been interesting, and was a roller coaster of ups and downs. I've had a lot of time for reflection the past few days, and I know a lot of changes have to be made in 2012. I'm looking forward to them. Praying God finds you wherever you are this year, and that you may be blessed beyond belief by Him