When we read every passage in the Old Testament, we have to read it through the light of the New Covenant, which was also promised in the Old:
"33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31: 33-34)
This New Covenant was cut for us at the Cross, where Jesus Christ took all our sins and gave us His righteousness:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
That perfect gift of righteousness signals that the enforcement clause of the New Covenant is in effect: "I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more."
So, we are no longer trying to keep our hearts, because now the grace of God keeps us in all things:
"Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein." (Hebrews 13: 9)
Now, this life is His life:
"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)
This life is not something that we create, but the He is creating, because He is our life (Colossians 3:4)
Now comes this morning's revelation to me.
I have lived in my head for a long time.
I lived from the false perspective that the life I need to live, the right thing or the wrong thing, had to come out of my head.
We are not called to live out of our heads, but out of our hearts, and our heart is no longer wicked as stated in the prophet Jeremiah:
"
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?" (Jeremiah 17: 7-9)
Take another look at that New Covenant. Because of all that Jesus has done, we receive a new heart. He also works within us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure (Philippians 2: 12-13)
This lesson is one of the harder lessons for me to accept.
Jesus Christ is actively taking care of everything, including the smallest matters in my life:
"26Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 27What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10: 26-31)
and in Luke:
"4And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 7But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." (Luke 12: 4-7)
God our Father cares so much for us, that even the hairs on our head are numbered.
So, one could say that Jesus has our head covered, as well as our heart.
For me, for the longest time, the peace in my life was based on knowing what was going to happen. I had to have everything figured out in my head.
What I am learning know is that life does not begin and end in my head, but in my heart.
"(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." (2 Corinthians 10: 4-5)
This has been the hardest thing to do -- to let Him live through me, rather than my trying to have everything figured out in my head first.
That can never work.
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