Circumcise Your Heart = Repentance
The LORD God warned His chosen People (of Judah and Jerusalem) before they were taken into Babylonian captivity that they needed to repent.
God’s love does that, He warns of consequences of our choices.
(NASB) Jeremiah 4:4 “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD
And remove the foreskins of your heart,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Or else My wrath will go forth like fire
And burn with none to quench it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.”
God was imploring His people to repent of their evil deeds. The people of Judah and Jerusalem would have understood that to “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD
And remove the foreskins of your heart” would be to cut sin out of their lives.
Circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant between God and God’s people. (See Genesis 17:1-14)
Circumcision was a “picture” with spiritual implications. Today, all who believe in the Son of God have repented of their sins (and those are real sins) = circumcision. Sins are to be cut off from our way of living: our motives, actions, words are to be changed because we have cut off those things from our lives. We are to cut off what is sinful according to God’s words (what is sinful in God’s sight).
If we refuse God’s way through the Lord Jesus Christ, we will suffer the consequences of God’s wrath, His unquenchable wrath because our actions are evil. (Note: God does not say ‘bad’ He states ‘evil’.)
Scripture is very clear…we are to repent…we are to circumcise our hearts, to cut off those things which are displeasing to God according to His words in the Holy Bible.
My prayer for all who read this devotional…to be honest with yourself before the living God of the Bible…repent, circumcise your heart and turn from your evil deeds. Turn to God in obedience to His words…God’s words are for your best.
Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior is imperative to live eternally with God.
(NASB) Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Salvation is the first step and the next step is to obey God’s way to live (you find what pleases Him by reading His words in the Holy Bible).