Jer 17:9 says the heart above all things is deceitful, and we do well to heed this warning. It is so easy to start off following God and then to move subtly to presuming upon God, thinking we have some privileged position, some special favour with God, and that all His laws and judgements apply to others and not to us. We look at our lives and think we are doing OK and God hasn't sent down any thunderbolts recently has He? If we do this we are presuming on the marcy of God. We so easily do this, even as Christians. We can start to take pride in our church or denomination.Proud of being charismatic, proud of being reformed, or baptist, or whatever. Or, as here, proud of being Jewish. Now, of course, there is a sense in which a Jew should be proud of being Jewish, ie being grateful for all that God has done for the nation of Israel, and we should all be grateful for the good things that God has done in our churches. But we must not be presumptuous. The whole of God's dealing with Israel were designed to lead to them repentance, then they could come to Christ and receive new life. The same is true of all of us. And it is still true, there are still many areas of my life where things need to be put right.
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