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| TUESDAY | March 16 |
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13, NKJV).
“With all your heart” means “sincerely,” true in word and act. The word sincere comes from two Latin words—sine (without) and cera (wax). Apparently in the past, less-than- honest sculptors would secretly fix the flaws and cracks in their work by plugging them with wax, which, of course, doesn’t hold. Hence, sincerity means being real and genuine, not artificial. It means speaking or acting “from the heart” and meaning it.
Read 2 Chronicles 25:2. What is that text saying? What important point is being made about what’s inside us?
The Hebrew word translated in some versions as “perfect” comes from the root slm (from which shalom is derived). It means, basically, “full,” “complete,” or “at peace.” Thus, we have here a king who did the right thing but not with a heart that was in the right place. He wasn’t sincere in his actions. This raises the possibility that a person could be doing the right things for the wrong reasons. Though we may be able to fool some of the people some of the time, and ourselves all the time, we can't fool God any of the time. How interesting that when David prayed for his son, the first thing he wanted him to have was “a perfect heart” (1 Chron. 29:19, NASB).
Sincerity is important because the one who isn’t sincere, the one whose heart isn’t committed to what’s true and right, is someone with a divided heart. There is surely something else pulling on such a person, and as long as he or she doesn’t let go, as long as this person still allows those other allegiances a place, the heart cannot be slm, complete or perfect before God. The key, then, is complete surrender to the Lord, a complete letting go of self. It’s not easy; in a real sense, to have that happen you need to be, as we saw yesterday, broken on the Rock.
How sincere are you in your faith? We’re not talking about occasional doubts, or having deep unanswered questions (everyone at times has doubts, and all have deep unanswered questions), nor are we talking about struggling with sin. Instead, we’re talking about your heart. Is it fully committed to God, “complete” before Him, or is it divided between God and something of the world? If it is the latter, what choices must you make?
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