Fooling God

Doing a lot of study in Jeremiah today.  It is such a powerful book and such an indictment on God's people.  What hits you again and again is the fact that God's people would sometimes feel bad and make some big promises, but they never really changed their heart.

God isn't fooled by their temporary sorrow.  He is angered by the fact that they will do the "right things" and go through the motions of obedience when they clearly don't mean it.  How easy it is to do that.  How often do we do the right thing outwardly while inwardly we have a much different plan and purpose?   It is so easy to tell someone that we forgive them but still harbor anger and unforgiveness in our heart.  It is easy to talk about how much the Lord means to us and how important He is and then leave very little room for Him in our lives, our priorities.  Do we sing "All and All" on Sunday, declaring to Him that He is more important than gold or silver and then live our week in slavery to the almighty dollar?

What are ways in which what you say does not match the true intentions of your heart?  How often does sorrow come more from either getting caught or being corrected than from truly seeing the evil of your sin?   That is very convicting for me.  May I not be sorry that things didn't work out or I got caught, but may I sorrow for the sin in my life and truly desire to renounce it, rather than grudgingly giving up sin and worldly things just because God said I have to.  Where's the joy in that?  God finds none.  (Jer. 6:15)