Prayer: Father, I approach You today with a contrite heart about the sin in my life. I ask for forgiveness for wrongful attitudes, pharisaical attitudes, and attitudes of feeling more righteous than others. I repent of my knowing what to do and not doing it. Amen.
Reading: Jeremiah 44 key: vs. 9-10 “Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, the evils of the kings of Judah, the evils of their wives, and your own evils and the evils of your wives, which were committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? They have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My Torah, My statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.” TLV
Attitude: I remember the first new car I recall my dad purchasing. It was a 1970 Ford LTD Station Wagon. I was in my senior year in high school and planning to attend the Senior Ball dance. It was a frigid wintery day and snow showers were forecast. The Ball was held in a Seattle downtown hotel and during the dance, students were reporting to one another that snow was falling. I was fearful of driving my dad’s new car in the snow, on the hills of Seattle streets. We made it home fine, but it was a tense drive. If I were going to have an incident, one would have expected it would have been that snowy night. However, I borrowed the family car another night and took my date up to Sea-Tac Airport to watch the incoming and outbound flights. Back in that day, one was able to walk someone to their gate and Sea-Tac also had an outdoor viewing balcony, atop the main airport. While driving into the parking garage, I misjudged the cement lane barriers and scraped the passenger side of the car. I was terrified to tell my dad the next morning. I was very contrite, sorrowful, and apologetic.
The Hebrew people had lost the ability to be contrite about their sin. They were hardhearted, unrepentant, and no longer had the capacity to be sorrowful about their sin.
We can become hardhearted too. We can become so complacent and conditioned that we no longer blush at what we used to be embarrassed or shy about. Little by little, we become conditioned by our sin, desensitized, and it becomes a lifestyle. The Hebrew people were burning incense to gods that they would not even consider before.
So, today, ask yourself, “Do I maintain a contrite heart before God (Adonai).” King David gives us a picture of his relationship with Adonai. He asks Adonai to “create” in him a “clean heart” and summarizes this passage by saying, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. For You would not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, nor be pleased by burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise (Psalms 51:17-19).”
Action: I choose today, to ask Adonai to create a clean heart within me.
Yield: I choose to submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit in transforming my heart and mind.
Engage: I choose to be transformed by the renewing of my heart and mind.
Relationship: I choose to live in humble obedient lifestyle unto Adonai.
Prayer: Father, I ask You to create a clean heart in me today. I desire to be clean before You. I am washed in the blood of Yeshua. Only His blood can wash away my sins. Amen.
Memory Verse: Psalms 51:19 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” TLV
Music Video: Worship Video—Refiner’s Fire
https://youtu.be/9Y8zP34AhuU?si=MEIIZYK_SWy200Oq
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”