"Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not." Jeremiah 11:8 (KJV)
In part one the focus was on the inclining of our ears; taking time to intentionally listen to the whispers of God. Now the focus switches to second part of that sentence: "But walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart."
As kids we all had great imaginations, we created such intricate worlds and stories all within our minds. We created rules and laws, whatever we thought should be allowed was. I remember pretending to be The Mighty Ducks, an old t.v. show my brothers and I loved. We would play it with our best friends in our basement. We had the control room, and the secret base; we had story lines and different events taking place that we all "knew" were happening. In our minds we had invented a world separate from the real one. They only rules were the ones we made up.
People have always said that as you grow up you begin to loose your imagination, but I tend to disagree. We don't loose it, it just moves places. It starts in our head, but moves to our hearts. We begin to think that we can define what the rules are. We tend to believe that our decisions are best. But when we begin to walk in the imagination of our evil hearts we being to go in the opposite direction of God. When we begin to place our way ahead of Gods we have a problem. The bible says over and over that our hearts will lead us wrong, that our heart is deceptive. Our hearts tells us to do what we want, and normally not what God wants.
What is the central word in that first sentence of Jeremiah 11:8? Its 'but'. This word placed in between the two statements shows us a relationship. When they didn't incline their ears they were following the imagination of their evil heart. When you do one you will do the other. If you listen you will follow Gods way; but if you choose your evil heart then you won't be listening to God. I pray that today you will "kill" your hearts imagination; no more of your way but Gods. Destroy it, ruin it, crucify it. Why wait to choose Gods way over your own. It's time to take a stand against yourself. Jesus said that to follow him you must die to yourself.
It's time to die, to find a better way to live.
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