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Day Four
King Image
Scripture: Matthew 15:1–20; Luke 12:1–2; John 5:1–8
In Matthew 15:1–20, Jesus speaks to our temptation to worship image instead of God. He reminds us that religious practices don’t always flow from a holy heart, and that anyone who truly wants to show wholehearted allegiance to God should be deeply concerned with true defilement—an unrighteous heart.
We innately believe we can fake devotion, and we often can for a time, but eventually who we really are on the inside is revealed. In fact, Jesus said as much: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known” (Luke 12:1–2).
I hear an invitation in Jesus’s words: we can either continue living in delusion or we can ask God to hold a mirror up to our heart to show us the reality of who we are and enable us to respond accordingly. A continued allegiance to delusion keeps our secret sins hidden from others, yes, but they also remain unhealed by God.
God is not afraid of the reality of what’s in our hearts. He knows how we’re formed; He knows we are but dust (Ps. 103:14). Jesus even says that when we acknowledge our human state, only then are we blessed by God and handed His kingdom (Matt. 5:3).
The question for us then becomes what Jesus asked the invalid who’d lain by the pool for thirty-eight years, trying to make it to the waters when they stirred, “Do you want to be healed?” (see John 5:1–8).
Do you actually want healing for the sin or hurt you’ve held for years?
Do you actually want restoration?
Do you actually want to experience God’s grace and love?
Do you actually want your inside and outside to match?
The minute you acknowledge you can’t do any of this for yourself and that you need Jesus for it all, the minute that you confess and repent, the kingdom of God rushes in by the Holy Spirit to clean, excise sin, and begin to match your outside with your regenerated inside.
You’ll know that God has made a way for you, and you’ll never want delusion again.
In what ways are you relying on checklists, formulas, or other external behaviors to hide internal realities?
Scripture
About this Plan
Relying on ourselves sounds good. After all, if we just get a little more organized, a little more patient, a little more spiritual, our lives will be better…. Right? In this week’s devotional, Christine Hoover reminds us why relying on ourselves leads us to bow to the false kings of anxiety, control, and self-indulgence. Only when we bring our whole hearts to the true King will we find true satisfaction.
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