January 6 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Jeremiah 17:1-10:

¹The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
²Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
³O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
⁴And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
⁵Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
⁶For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
⁷Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
¹⁰I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Devotional

Man does not know himself. He does not know his own heart. He does not believe the testimony of God concerning himself, concerning his total depravity and sinfulness. Instead of believing God and trusting God, he puts his trust in man, and makes flesh his arm. And his heart departs from the Lord. His wicked heart has deceived him. Being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish his own righteousness, he has not submitted himself unto the righteousness of God. He has forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Hence he is under God's curse.

Man must learn the greatness of his sin and misery. He must realize his utterly lost condition, else he will not realize the need of a Saviour. But when he realizes that he is utterly undone, that he is a slave of sin, bound with chains of Satan which he cannot break; that he is guilty before God, and worthy of eternal condemnation, then out of the depth of his helplessness and despair he will cry unto God for deliverance. And "with the Lord there is mercy, and with him there is plenteous redemption." But we must remember it is God that brings about this change in the sinner by his omnipotent grace. We read "A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Such a heart is contrite, and a contrite heart God will not despise.

Prayer

Most merciful God, cause us to know the greatness of our sin and misery. May we be upright, acknowledging our guilt before Thee. May we not despair, but lay hold in faith on Thy divine promises. May we believe, that where sin abounded, there grace did much more abound; and, if we confess our sins, He (Christ) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and so restore unto us the joy of Thy salvation. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

---

Scripture in Devotional: Jer. 17:5; Rom. 10:3; Jer. 17:13; Jer. 17:5; Ps. 130:7; Ezek. 36:26; Ps. 51:17.

Click here for background on Light and Comfort and the author.