Corona Devo 1663

As Halloween approaches, there are creepy displays appearing on people's front lawns and if you drive by a haunted house sign or even the windows of one of those "pop-up" Halloween costume stores...it's scary.  

And I'll admit, I don't like scary masks or jump scares.  I was the girl who screamed her head off when we went to haunted houses in high school.  They're scary.

But I have news for us...actually, I have Scripture for us that I find much scarier than someone jumping out of the dark, or a stranger wearing a hockey mask and holding a fake machete.

Are we ready for this scariness?: God searches our hearts and examines our secret motives.

~~~

If we don't think that verse is scarier than an abandoned house with broken windows on a deserted street...then we are wearing our own mask of deception.  

Sure, sure, sure...we love God, and we do many things to love and honor Him.  But our Lord reveals in these verses that He sees our deeds...but He also sees what no one else sees: our motives. 

So many of the golden-deeds that we do and say "for the Lord"...have a tarnish underneath and cracks in the foundation...because we are human, and our hearts are sinful.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  (10) But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives.  I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”  ~Jeremiah 17:9-10

Oh!  These verses give me the shivers worse than hearing the howl of a werewolf!  

But...what can we do?  

Well--at a haunted house or in the dark of night, all we have to do in order to gain perspective and peace is to turn on the light.  Then the shadows disappear and the mystery is removed.

The human heart is deceitful, and that includes ours, but when we accept Jesus into our heart, he cleanses it.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  ~Psalm 51:7)

He is our advocate in moving forward.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— (17) the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  ~John 14:16-17

Jesus is our light, and our salvation.  When we know Him, we gain perspective and peace in our lives.  With Jesus, our shadows disappear, and yes, God searches all hearts and examines secret motives, but Jesus guides us, and when we seek Him, follow Him, imitate Him...then our hearts and motives are tainted by Him, instead of us.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  ~Psalm 27:1

~~~

We don't have to pay admission to a haunted house in order to have the bajeebies scared out of us.  

Just listen to what flies out of our mouth when we are angry, exhausted, or starving.  It's scary, and those words come from our human heart, which God calls deceitful and desperately wicked.

We don't need hologram-projected ghosts on a wall to recognize when something isn't as it seems.  We can also look no further than our motives sometimes.  

...This would "look good on my resume", so I will do it.  Or "Getting this extra training/degree will help me make more money", and so we take the class.   

What is really at the root of what we are doing?  Saying?  Even praying... 

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?  (10) But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives.  I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”  ~Jeremiah 17:9-10

Lord, search our hearts...and our motives.  Examine us, and purify us today.  Please also help us to sense the Holy Spirit (advocate) within us, AND HEED IT.  When You search and examine us, please look through the lens of Jesus, because He stands between us and Your holiness.  Don't give us what we are due or what we deserve, Lord...but rather: judge us in light of Jesus.  He alone takes away the "scariness" of these verses and this world.  Amen.


Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com 

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