Before God sent Good News in His Son Jesus Christ, there was bad news. This bad news is that our hearts (as Jeremiah 17:9 puts it) are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That is very bad news indeed. And complicating this further, God sees our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7) and all the vile things that come out of them (Matthew 15:18-19). Proverbs (27:19) says “As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.” We are all exposed before God, each and every one of us.

But God’s Good News is powerful to save us in this desperate condition. “I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).

Our response to this Good News is to put and keep our trust in the living God.”The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:8-9).

So let’s review this material: 1. Our hearts are corrupt and God sees them in all their stench and filth. 2. Only God can change our hearts. 3. We must never trust our own hearts, but put our trust in God who is powerful to save.

This is Good News for the New Year and for always.

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