Where's your heart facing?

Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say, “We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.

Lamentations 3:40-42 NLT
This is the final post in a three part series that I'm doing on Lamentations 3.
What I love about reading the Bible is the genuineness of the people who were inspired to write it. As we have seen so far, Jeremiah was brutally honest with God about his feelings. He felt abandoned because it appeared as though God had shut out his prayers (Lam 3:8). He felt humilated by his own people who mocked him continuously (3:14). He was fearful because everything he'd hoped for from the Lord was lost (3:18). And yet, in spite of the chaos around him, he chose to depend completely on God's salvation (3:25-26). When was the last time you were honest with God about your feelings and brought them to Him?
My brothers and sisters, we're living in a culture where emotions take precedence over moral standards. As long as something feels like the right thing to do, it's acceptable, we're told. Another common trend of thought is to 'follow your heart' when making a decision. But as God's beloved children, I want to share with you the most important lesson that we can take away from this chapter. This is found in verse 40, which invites us to 'test and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord.'
The Word has much to say about the hearts of men (women included!) and it's certainly not pleasant. God says that the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Only He knows truly how bad it is (Jer 17:9-10). Our hearts are prone to wander away from God and if we're not careful, it's easy to be swayed by our feelings. Even the wisest man on earth, King Solomon, had his heart led astray (1 Kings 11:4, 9). This is why it is to important to guard our hearts for everything we do in life flows from it (Prov 4:23). Everything, including one's perspective on life, attitudes and motivation comes from the heart.
Beloved, which direction is your heart facing? Let me encourage you today to lift up your hearts and hands to the Lord and confess your sins before Him (Lam 3:41). Let's spend some time today asking Him to examine our hearts. Is your heart lifted up towards the Lord or is it down on earth pursuing the pleasures that this life can offer?

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