Jeremiah 4:14 “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?”

Verse after verse Jeremiah has outlined the sins of Judah, sins so bad that God said they were worse than Israel. Why the long list of wrong doing? Why so many accusations against the people? The answer to those two questions is found in verse 14. Sin is a problem of the heart. It is a bit like the expression, “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” Their sins could be counted, they could be listed, they could be pointed out one after another. The truth, however, is that the problem was not the list of sins but the sin of their heart.

As long as wicked thoughts were lodged in their hearts the list of wrong doing would grow and grow. It wasn’t so much that sins needed to end but rather that sin needed to end. The sin of a heart that rejected God as God. No people can continue in the sin of disobedience to God and have expectation that God will save them. No people and no person.  We might well shorten our personal list but if we don’t wash our heart and remove the evil that is lodged therein it won’t really matter.

Task for Today: Don’t count sins, examine your heart. A multitude or a few are all the same if your heart is disobedient. If your heart doesn’t belong to God but allows wickedness to live in it then salvation becomes a difficult goal. “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” is still good advice.