Delores Liesner
Activating Faith in everyday life
Desperately
Oh Lord, how desperately I long for your presence and covering for the concerns of my heart today. I ask myself how is it that I don’t have this intensity daily, that it seems driven by 
challenge, weakness, the feeling of being crushed. I pray that I would desperately seek you daily no matter the texture of life’s events.
I’m so overwhelmed with desperation I run to the Bible and am surprised it only describes one thing using the word desperately. And it’s desperately sick.
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?”
Follow your heart seems to be the mantra of today’s culture and yet according to this verse, the heart is desperately sick. Why are we so willing to follow the dictates of a heart (feelings, the will and the intellect) when it is not only desperately sick, but more deceitful than everything else? How are we fooled into thinking the heart can direct us to or is capable of the fulfillment that the Lord alone can provide?
What does desperately sick mean? Weak. Incurable. Woeful. Deplorable (full of sorrow, worthy of severe condemnation or reproach – disgusting)
Imagine trusting someone or something to give me correct direction, instruction, or even encouragement knowing it had a reputation for making disgusting and sorrow filled choices. I’d run – wouldn’t you?
When thinking of evil things on the earth, images come to mind of personages who committed great horrific crimes. It blows my mind to consider that each crime was the result of someone trusting a heart with capability no different than mine and making those choices. Except for God there would be no hope. It was no different when Jeremiah reported that God plainly told them: “you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me.” The prophet describes who is to blame for their choice to sin and the consequences.
Jeremiah 17:4 “And you will, even of yourself let go of your inheritance that I gave you;” Nope, no saying ‘the devil made me do it’ or ‘I couldn’t help it’. It’s far sadder.
God gave us that inheritance too – but we can let go of it. How? By choosing to.
By trusting the heart of mankind instead of trusting the Lord. By not treasuring what we were given and holding onto it. By not listening to God.
How grateful I am to know it’s never too late to turn back – to long instead for guidance and direction from God’s Word. And to be brought back to life. Psalm 119:40 Behold, I long for Thy precepts; Revive me through Thy righteousness. I especially like how the Message translates the beginning to read: “See how hungry I am for your counsel”. I pray that I would daily hunger for God’s way, and pray for those in my circle of influence to listen to the Lord and to not let go of their inheritance – their treasure, but to hold on…
Desperately.
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Be the Miracle! – with journaling pages
Delores Liesner: Author
American Christian Fiction Writers Association
Delores Liesner 
Delores, your words are mine! Desperately holding on…
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