January 2nd Devotion

Ephesians 2:3 says that we are born “with an evil nature.” In other words, we are naturally concerned primarily for ourselves. Through the prophet, Jeremiah, God revealed that the human heart is “most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (17:9) Such, is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. We see the impact of the human heart very early in the Bible. When the first two boys grew up, Cain “brought to the Lord a gift of his farm produce, while Abel brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock” (Genesis 4:3&4). Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God while Cain’s wasn’t. Abel’s sacrifice represented the best of what he had while Cain thought he could appease God with a token gift from some of his leftovers. Abel’s sacrifice required faith while Cain’s sacrifice didn’t (Hebrews 11:4). When Cain saw how his brother’s sacrifice pleased God and his didn’t, Cain became angry. Now, God tried to warn Cain of the consequences if he didn’t get his anger under control (see James 1:19&20), but Cain didn’t listen. Cain’s envy resulted in Cain taking the life of his own brother (Genesis 4:6-9) and God punished him for doing so. Evil has a way of infecting others and spreading like yeast in dough (I Corinthians 15:33; Matthew 16:6,11&12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1; Galatians 5:9). By the time of Genesis 6:5, people had become so bad, the Bible says, “Now the Lord observed the extent of the people’s wicked-ness, and He saw that ALL their thoughts were consistently and totally evil.” That is a horrible indictment, but it is the result of man’s evil heart. The only hope for mankind is the promise of a new heart (Jeremiah 24:7; Ezekiel 11:19&20; 36:26; II Corinthians 5:17), made available to us because of Jesus Christ. It is absolutely essential that the lives of those who have new hearts in Jesus, look totally different from the lives of those still being influenced by their old hearts.