Fruit

I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with childhood memories, but for me there has always been something special about summer days and a ripe watermelon.

Maybe it was the way
a watermelon could feed
a multitude of hungry children,
or the way the juice ran
down
your chin
in the sunshine,
or the seeds
which could be fired
like artillery
from between your teeth,
just for the fun of it.

But, last week I was opening a watermelon and wondering what it is that opens us up?

• Difficult situations?

• Struggles with health?

• Conflicts with others?

I was thinking about the situations in our lives which make us feel vulnerable and exposed. And wondering, what it is that makes us uncomfortable with that?

        “I used to never feel I was good enough for God” someone said to me.
        “I stayed away from church because I thought that I wasn't good enough for God.

Why is it that we all are so ready to believe the worst? Staying away. Hiding seems to be a natural response. We all do it.

The Bible says that in the beginning, the first people hid themselves because they had listened to a terrible lie.

 'Did God really say that?' asked the serpent. (Genesis 3.1)

Why is it that we all are ready to believe the worst

• About ourselves?

• About another person?

• About God?

Instead of holding on to the truth, they believed the terrible lie.

They doubted God's love. They turned away and covered up. And then they blamed others.

         Adam blamed Eve.
                   Eve blamed the Serpent. And.
                         The serpent...     

The serpent didn't have a leg to stand on.
  
I laid the knife down on the table; the fruit open and inviting on the table.
            “His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, 
             cutting through everything, 
             whether doubt or defence, 
            laying us open to listen and obey.”
                                       -  Hebrews 4.12 msg

Did God say that? Yes.

God's Word always lays the fruit of our own heart open also.
 
The Prophet Jeremiah knew this: 
               “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. 
                 Who can understand it?”
                                                                                  (Jeremiah 17.9)
Jeremiah saw that we not only listen to the terrible lies, but we cover ourselves up with the lies we tell ourselves. We deny the truth about ourselves.

This is all part of the pattern and sickness called sin.

So the Prophet asks, when it comes to the truth about ourselves, who can understand it?

But then the answer comes:
“I, the Lord search the heart and examine the mind...” (v 10)

God not only sees us, he alone understand us.  There is someone we can turn to.

(permission granted by RFB)

How should we respond, when we see the truth about ourselves?
 
Jeremiah prayed this prayer:

Lord, heal me and I will be completely well;

rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. 

You are the one I praise!"               

                 - Jeremiah 17.14