Daily Devotion

 

The meaning of this is not easy to grasp, but probably it is. The light of the body depends on the eye; if the eye is diseased the light turns to darkness. Just so, the light of life depends on the heart; if the heart is wrong all of life is darkened. Jesus urges us to see that our inner lamp is always burning.

What is it that darkens the inner light? What is it that can go wrong with our hearts?

 

(1^st) Our hearts may become hard. The first time we do a wrong thing we do it with a tremor, and sometimes with a sore heart. Each time we repeat it, the tremor grows less, until we can do it without a qualm. There is a terrible hardening power in sin. No man ever took the first step to sin without the warnings sounding in his heart, but if he sins often enough the time comes when he ceases to care. What we were once afraid, and reluctant to do becomes a habit. We have nobody, but ourselves to blame if we allow ourselves to reach that stage.

 

(2) Our hearts may become dull. It is tragically easy to accept things. In the beginning, our hearts may be sore at the sight of the world's suffering, and pain; but in the end, most people become so used to it that they accept it, and feel nothing at all.  It is all too true that for most people the feelings of youth are far more intense than those of age. That is especially true of the cross of Jesus. The story is told of a little girl who went to church with her parents. She was sitting next to her mother and heard the reading of the crucifixion. She heard of Jesus being delivered to be crucified, and then there came the words with terrible finality, "...and they crucified Him." She buried her face in her mother's coat and was sobbing her heart out. "Why did they do it?" she asked.  That is how we all ought to feel about the cross, but we have heard the story so often that we can listen to it with no reaction. God, keep us from having a heart so hardened that it has lost the power to feel the agony of the cross.

 

(3) Our hearts may be actively rebellious. It is perfectly possible for a person to know the right way, and deliberately to take the wrong. A person may feel God's hand upon his shoulder and shake it off. GOD SAVE US FROM THE DARKENED HEART!

Life application:   We are cautioned because our heart can be "deceitfully wicked." Keep God's love-light burning.

 

Praise/Prayer: Dear Father, I am so thankful for the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, because they both help me stay on the right road to heaven. I don't want my heart to ever become darkened. I know there are all kinds of reasons that the devil would bring into our minds, but greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Hallelujah! Amen!