I find so much revealing of God's heart in the history of His word. So much about the perfection of His character shows up in so many places. Many may argue about the harsh response that He's taken against those who worshipped other gods as He's warned against or bore evil hearts and ways that made themselves eternally useless against His purpose for having given them life. Our God knows the difference since He knows the hearts and minds of every being that He's given life to. Some might blame God for the consequences of destruction and evil in the world since man- through Adam invited sin into it, but they would be in error. God's heart is clearly displayed for anyone who chooses to look for it. Reading the prophets and what God said through them in context begins to tell the truth of a heart passionate for those who love and obey Him...
What God said the following things- revealing something precious about His own heart?...
"For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6 (NKJV)
"Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place."" Jeremiah 23:3 (NKJV)
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’" Zechariah 7:9-10 (NKJV)
Who is it that pleads with mankind that He created, offering grace and kindness, and only threatening those stubborn hearts who would still refuse His plea for righteousness?...
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow." “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 1:16-20 (NKJV)
People tend to quote Jeremiah 29:11 so often and I think it's because in it, they find encouragement, and I wouldn't dare to throw cold water on their favor toward it...
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope". Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)
...but my thoughts are that what follows after that verse is where the rubber meets the road in terms of the source of everything that we were created with a desire to find...
"Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NKJV)
I personally believe that's the point of the bible, to lead us to The Heart of hearts, passionate for those hearts willing to passionately seek Him and to submit to the relationship that He created us for. It's a revealing of who He truly is and the demonstration of His courtship of those that He lovingly created with an opportunity to choose Him. I believe that it's not a religion that we were created to seek, but a relationship with Him that honors all that He is and has invested in us.
I think that the heart that truly knows Him will find itself responding to God's as King David's did...
"Answer me speedily, O Lord; My spirit fails! Do not hide Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit. Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You." Psalm 143:7-8 (NKJV)
I pray that my own heart humbly and gratefully tells a true tale of love to my God's- full of the joy of having found all that I was ultimately created to find...
...in Him.
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NKJ)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it." Deuteronomy 10:12-14 (NKJ)
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