Plagues Of The Heart
I Kings 8:38-39
What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
I understand that this is a passage to Israel, but it can easily apply to us (II Timothy 3:16). We all have our own plague of the heart, we know what it is, and God knows what it is.
Jeremiah 2:19
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,
and thy backslidings shall reprove thee:
know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter,
that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God,
and that my fear is not in thee,
saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Our plague will result in wickedness and backsliding. Know that it is an evil thing and bitter. We have forsaken the Lord and no longer fear Him. We know what we are doing, and we know how to correct the problem.
James 4:8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners;
and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
God always has a solution. Draw nigh to him and he will draw nigh to you. It’s just that you have to go first (I John 1:9). Quit being double-minded and hypocritical. I understand that the church is full of hypocritical saved sinners, but there is room for one more. Come on in and help us out.
Genesis 6:5
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.
You can get a long ways away from God. Be careful, the slope is slippery and you can slide down it very quickly. Your heart can reach the point that He will let you be destroyed and maybe destroy you himself, just not all of us again at one time in one flood (that is literally promised by rainbows – Genesis 9:8-17).
Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins,
even to give every man according to his ways,
and according to the fruit of his doings.
Our heart is dangerous and will lead us away from God if we let it. The natural direction is away from God. You must make a conscious effort to draw nigh to God. If you don’t understand salvation and the kingdom, you will not appreciate God enough to continually draw nigh to Him. He will give you the desires of your heart. Be careful what you ask for.
Exodus 8:1-10 is the account of God sending plagues to Pharoah in Egypt. In the plague of frogs, they were everywhere. Yuck! Moses asked Pharoah,
“When shall I intreat for thee?”
meaning when shall I ask God to take away the frogs. You know what Pharoah said? This is unbelievable! He said
“tomorrow”!
Can you believe that? He had to think about it overnight. He wanted to live with the frogs a little longer before giving them up. Is that what you are doing? - living with the frogs a little longer before asking God to take them away. I don’t know what your plagues or frogs are today, but you need to draw nigh to God and get away from them. What are you supposed to do?
Jeremiah 23:29
Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Go to the word of God and get purified and broken up. It is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It reads you and gives you what you need if you want the truth. Come to it protecting plagues in your heart and it will not help you. Come to it to get proof of your privately interpreted doctrine and it will not help you. You must take the higher thoughts and ways of God as they are written, not as you think they should be written.
Hebrews 12:6
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If you are saved, the Lord will get your attention if you wait too long. Draw nigh to him and get his attention before He has to chasten and scourge you. Believe me, drawing nigh is really easy compared to sitting under God’s scrub brush.
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
This is great news!
God will do it for you.
You just have to be willing.
SO:
We each have a plague of our own heart.
God knows about the plague.
The plague can get worse.
Or the plague can go away.
You decide before God decides for you.
Photos courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net and pixabay.com
