The Dross of Deception
A few weeks ago, I watched a video devo from Beth Moore on Jeremiah 17:9-10. If you would like to take a quick 20 minutes to listen to it, you can check it out here. It really goes by quickly, but it taught me a lot and has a lot to do why I'm writing these words now.
I watched this video and God began to do a work in my heart, through my Esther study just a few days after praying with Beth Moore in this video that I would "lean in" to hear God's voice in how my heart is being deceived. I'm going to take a few moments to summarize what she brought out of the text in Jeremiah. So if you don't have time to watch the video, no worries, I'm gonna hit the high points.
First, the text:
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
"I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind..."
This is one of those verses that is often quoted, but not fully understood, especially in the light of Christ. We are so often told to be afraid of our hearts and to not trust anything that may arise out of them. But if that were true, just taking it to my own level, should I be afraid of my love for India? My love for others? No, because we are redeemed. I was reminded the other day by God that there is not one part of us that is not redeemed and washed clean by the blood of our Jesus. When we distrust ourselves in Him, we distrust Him. Yes, we must test everything to make sure it is of Him, but we also must trust Him at all times.
So, then, why do we still quote it? Why am I even talking about this? Because our hearts are still prone to deception. This isn't just talking about lies. It's not saying that our heart lies to us. No, to be deceived means that the lie worked. It means that we believed the lie. Sometimes you can tell when someone is lying, right? Especially in Christ, we can hear the enemy's lies loud and clear when they are big and bold and brazenly against all we know from Christ. But our enemy is crafty. He is cunning. And he can tell a good number of "little lies" that we often miss, because our hearts are bent towards deception. Ever since the garden, He's been saying to us, "Did God really say...?"
Some common lies that I often hear are:
Does God really love you?
Is He really good?
Have you really been changed?
Is that struggle really all that bad?
The last one comes to mind so clearly as I remember what Beth Moore challenged us to ask of God: Where is my heart being deceived? At first I saw the first three questions, but then God began to reveal a deeper deception. Pride. I had previously been so incredibly blind to my own pridefulness, but He began to reveal it right after I asked this. Satan had been deceiving me in that area, by spiritualizing the struggle. Yes, you heard me right. My pride has often been masked by my heart thinking that I'm serving Christ in it. Yes, that sounds absurd when I put it like that, but let me put it in an example.
Think back to Israel's own history. At first, it was just them and God there in the wilderness. Then, He joined them in battling for the promised land. Then, He raised up judges to keep them walking in His ways. Then, prophets came to speak on His behalf. But the people, just like us, got restless with the prophets. They decided they wanted a king to lead them. They begged God to raise up a king for them. They did not see that their request was really a replacement for God. They spiritualized it, thinking that this was a good thing, so that they could be like other nations. But really, in 1 Samuel 8:7, God says, "Obey the voice of the people, for they have rejected not you but me as being king over them..."
I spiritualized my pride by not seeing it for what it is: I was trying to be God in another person's life. I was not letting HIM be God, but essentially getting in His way. Anytime I would catch a glimpse in it, I would, as Paul says, feel a worldly grief, which caused a rift in my intimacy with God, but did not cause change, because I was still closing my eyes to the reality and gravity of it. But, with His immense kindness, not condemnation, He has opened my eyes to it, showing me the great deception of it.
If you've been following my blog this year, you've probably heard me mention the blessing of this season; for as hard and as painful as it has been, God has refined me so much through it. And He still is as He directs my eyes toward the next step, the new season of heading back to MC this Spring. Last night, the Spirit gave me something to pray as I was closing my eyes to sleep and I want to share it with you as perhaps He leads you further into this refining, this sanctifying, process, that we may become more and more like Him.
Jesus, you have already redeemed my heart, casting it anew in precious gold. Refine me unto the Day you return. Burn away the dross of deception, that I may brilliantly receive and respond to and reflect only Your truth.
Even as He gave me this prayer, I was unsure about what dross meant, so I looked it up to make sure I had the right idea. It is something to be regarding as worthless, as rubbish. It is a particular scum formed on the surface of molten metal. It has to be scraped out (a bit painful), that the truest and most beautiful part of the metal can be revealed and can reflect light most brilliantly without tarnish and dullness. Satan wants us to be deceived into thinking that it is small, it doesn't really matter if we deal with it or not. But Jesus wants us to let Him scrape it out and thus transform us more into His image, that others may see and know that He is God.
So, ask Him: Where is my heart being deceived? He will answer you. Don't be afraid of His answer. He is not going to condemn you, He is going to speak tenderly to you and lead you to repentance. He is kind, not harsh, with His sheep. Let Him speak truth into deception, that He may overcome it.
"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
for You are my praise" (v. 14).
I watched this video and God began to do a work in my heart, through my Esther study just a few days after praying with Beth Moore in this video that I would "lean in" to hear God's voice in how my heart is being deceived. I'm going to take a few moments to summarize what she brought out of the text in Jeremiah. So if you don't have time to watch the video, no worries, I'm gonna hit the high points.
First, the text:
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
"I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind..."
This is one of those verses that is often quoted, but not fully understood, especially in the light of Christ. We are so often told to be afraid of our hearts and to not trust anything that may arise out of them. But if that were true, just taking it to my own level, should I be afraid of my love for India? My love for others? No, because we are redeemed. I was reminded the other day by God that there is not one part of us that is not redeemed and washed clean by the blood of our Jesus. When we distrust ourselves in Him, we distrust Him. Yes, we must test everything to make sure it is of Him, but we also must trust Him at all times.
So, then, why do we still quote it? Why am I even talking about this? Because our hearts are still prone to deception. This isn't just talking about lies. It's not saying that our heart lies to us. No, to be deceived means that the lie worked. It means that we believed the lie. Sometimes you can tell when someone is lying, right? Especially in Christ, we can hear the enemy's lies loud and clear when they are big and bold and brazenly against all we know from Christ. But our enemy is crafty. He is cunning. And he can tell a good number of "little lies" that we often miss, because our hearts are bent towards deception. Ever since the garden, He's been saying to us, "Did God really say...?"
Some common lies that I often hear are:
Does God really love you?
Is He really good?
Have you really been changed?
Is that struggle really all that bad?
The last one comes to mind so clearly as I remember what Beth Moore challenged us to ask of God: Where is my heart being deceived? At first I saw the first three questions, but then God began to reveal a deeper deception. Pride. I had previously been so incredibly blind to my own pridefulness, but He began to reveal it right after I asked this. Satan had been deceiving me in that area, by spiritualizing the struggle. Yes, you heard me right. My pride has often been masked by my heart thinking that I'm serving Christ in it. Yes, that sounds absurd when I put it like that, but let me put it in an example.
Think back to Israel's own history. At first, it was just them and God there in the wilderness. Then, He joined them in battling for the promised land. Then, He raised up judges to keep them walking in His ways. Then, prophets came to speak on His behalf. But the people, just like us, got restless with the prophets. They decided they wanted a king to lead them. They begged God to raise up a king for them. They did not see that their request was really a replacement for God. They spiritualized it, thinking that this was a good thing, so that they could be like other nations. But really, in 1 Samuel 8:7, God says, "Obey the voice of the people, for they have rejected not you but me as being king over them..."
I spiritualized my pride by not seeing it for what it is: I was trying to be God in another person's life. I was not letting HIM be God, but essentially getting in His way. Anytime I would catch a glimpse in it, I would, as Paul says, feel a worldly grief, which caused a rift in my intimacy with God, but did not cause change, because I was still closing my eyes to the reality and gravity of it. But, with His immense kindness, not condemnation, He has opened my eyes to it, showing me the great deception of it.
If you've been following my blog this year, you've probably heard me mention the blessing of this season; for as hard and as painful as it has been, God has refined me so much through it. And He still is as He directs my eyes toward the next step, the new season of heading back to MC this Spring. Last night, the Spirit gave me something to pray as I was closing my eyes to sleep and I want to share it with you as perhaps He leads you further into this refining, this sanctifying, process, that we may become more and more like Him.
Jesus, you have already redeemed my heart, casting it anew in precious gold. Refine me unto the Day you return. Burn away the dross of deception, that I may brilliantly receive and respond to and reflect only Your truth.
Even as He gave me this prayer, I was unsure about what dross meant, so I looked it up to make sure I had the right idea. It is something to be regarding as worthless, as rubbish. It is a particular scum formed on the surface of molten metal. It has to be scraped out (a bit painful), that the truest and most beautiful part of the metal can be revealed and can reflect light most brilliantly without tarnish and dullness. Satan wants us to be deceived into thinking that it is small, it doesn't really matter if we deal with it or not. But Jesus wants us to let Him scrape it out and thus transform us more into His image, that others may see and know that He is God.
So, ask Him: Where is my heart being deceived? He will answer you. Don't be afraid of His answer. He is not going to condemn you, He is going to speak tenderly to you and lead you to repentance. He is kind, not harsh, with His sheep. Let Him speak truth into deception, that He may overcome it.
"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
for You are my praise" (v. 14).
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