The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
I tend to read the above in a negative way. You know ... you've been bad and are about to get a switch on your backside type of negative.
But "according to the fruit of his deeds" is also positive. And God blesses us in more ways than just getting a physical reword. Can you really put a price on the joy YOU feel when you help out your kids? When you read them a story, play catch, or help them catch a toad? Or when you give to a family that has nothing.
So ... what types of fruits are your growing in your life?
Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, declares the Lord; you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter our habitations?’ I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, declares the Lord; I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her.
Now back to the switch on your backside type of fruits.
I had a brand new jacket my parents had bought me. It was cold outside when my brother and I went out to play hide-n-seek. So wearing my new jacket I decided to hide under the car.
Dad told me I would get a swat for each of the grease stains on my jacket. It hurt a bit. But I also remembered to take care of all the things that are entrusted to me. Not just a jacket.
So often we flit from task to task ignoring the important people and things around us. We get lazy when we hit the 'zone' of our lives. Just remember that with a small spark all that you have found comfort in can be gone.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
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