LORD’S DAY, SEPTEMBER 17
James 1:19-27
Proverbs 28:26

"He that trusteth in his
own heart is a fool…"

A SANCTIFIED HEART (1)

The human conscience, mind and heart are mingled together and affect one another. Your heart grieves when you remember someone who has offended or hurt you. Your heart is glad and thankful when you remember the love and kindness of the Lord and others. Your heart worries and is anxious when you think about the difficulties, troubles, problems, illness or trials you are encountering. Your heart is stressed and depressed when you think about your heavy workload, your tight schedule, your hopeless situation, etc. Your conscience and heart feel guilty and remorseful when you remember your mistakes, faults or sins, hurting others, grieving the Holy Spirit, damaging your good testimony for Christ, etc. The only way to have the peace of God is to repent, trust in Him, pray and commit everything to Him. "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:6-7). It is vital to forget the things in the past and think about the Lord and on "whatsoever things are true,… honest, … just, … pure, … lovely, … of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil 4:8).

The human heart is very deceitful and wicked (Jer 17:9; James 1:26), and so are human feelings. Whether we are right and acceptable before God is based on our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood for our justification (Rom 5:1, 9) and on our obedience and submission to the Holy Spirit and God’s Word for our sanctification (John 17:17; 1 Pet 1:2, 22). Sadly, many are deceiving themselves through their feelings unawares! They may become very emotional when hearing messages with touching stories, or hearing soothing or exciting music with repeated lyrics. They may feel they love God and are close to Him, expressed with all their "zeal of the flesh" like clapping and waving of hands, jumping, dancing or speaking in tongues while their life, worship and practices are not according to God’s Word! They are deceived by their feelings!

THOUGHT: Trusting in one’s feelings is foolishness (Prov 28:26).
PRAYER: Lord, may I trust wisely in Thee and Thy Word alone.