Author: Dave Dishman (Page 238 of 458)

How many times have you heard the advice, Follow your heart, it won’t lead you astray? The assumption being that deep down inside, we know what we want and what we want is good for us.

This view of the heart insists that before interacting with the world we exist as beautiful, unblemished creatures. If we make contact with that part of ourselves, we’ll steer ourselves with clarity.

Advertisers revel in this thinking, allowing influencers to promote like wildfire spreading through dry timber. Prophets of our day trumpet the message and anyone looking to undergird their lifestyle finds ready support—I’m just following my heart.

But Jeremiah uncovered an inconvenient truth about our hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

According to the scriptures, our inner guiding spirit is duplicitous and diseased. The heart cannot be easily understood, let alone trusted implicitly.

The choice lays before me. Trust my heart, or trust the words of the Lord.

Ironic, but I can’t ask my heart for guidance on this question—it will lie to me. If I ask the Lord (and take time to listen), I’ll get a better result.

Or, I can just read the words of Jeremiah where it’s all spelled out.

Jeremiah 17 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Nick Fewings

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.

Jeremiah’s prayer of lament expresses the attitude I need toward the scriptures in my hand. If I eat them as Jeremiah says, digest them, take them deep into my soul, then they do the work they’re intended to do.

No other source exists for bending us closer to God. Without the words of God, our techniques or meditation or silence or worship fall short—sometimes even bend us away from the heart of God. The devil masquerades as an angel of light, you know.

So, eat his words. Chew the cud. Ruminate like a bovine. Let God’s words bring joy and delight. A true relationship with the Lord waits, available on his menu at your fingertips.

Order up.

Jeremiah 15:16 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Louis Hansel

I enjoy reading and spending time in books, both fiction and non-fiction. I like a good novel that keeps me up way too late. The last couple of years my wife turned me on to audible books, so I listen my way through good books as well.

The Apostle Paul enjoyed books. He grew up a scholar, studying under the leading professors of his day. Reading and writing formed his life, his persona. But over time a problem developed:

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

What thorn afflicted Paul? Probably his bad and ever-declining eyesight (see Galatians 4:15 & 6:11). What could be worse for a brilliant scholar and writer? I think of Paul as he traveled, half-blind, speaking to crowds he barely saw, dictating letters and dependent on others to read to him.

Do we all have a thorn in the flesh? (Spoiler alert—it’s not your spouse). An infirmity we cannot shake? Over time all of us experience such situations. Our bodies deteriorate. We cannot do what we once did easily. I prefer my large print Bible these days.

Paul hated his thorn, only grudgingly accepted it, yet eventually saw the Lord more clearly through his weak eyes. He watched God’s power grow and spread, resting in grace. Good perspective as I face similar circumstances.

2 Corinthians 12 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Andrey Grinkevich

It seems odd to read of the arrogant who speak defiantly against heaven and then find the Lord pouring them a glass of wine:

In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.

But after some investigation, I don’t want a sip.

This cup of boiling wine represents the wrath of God. I’m reminded of the grapes crushed in the great winepress of God’s wrath (Revelation 14:19); or the vintage that drove nations to staggering madness (Jeremiah 25:15-16); or the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

God’s wrath is real. It’s a hard aspect of the character of God to wrap my mind around, but God judges the wicked, both individually and as nations. Sometimes the innocent stumble in it all. I have to trust the Lord knows what he’s doing.

One thing for sure, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of this generous pour.

Psalm 75 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Roberta Sorge