Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Yesterday I said God would test you so that you could see how you measure up. Allow me to continue in this vein and draw some conclusions which might help you further.  In the process of testing there are going to be positive results and negative results. Remember here that it is God who is bringing to you the test results and telling you what those results mean.

2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

Don’t compare your results against those of other men or women in Christ. Never compare yourself with a non-believer. God will give you encouragement in good results and correction in bad results. So often, all too often, we become fruit inspectors, thinking that our fruit is not ripe, not sweet enough, or not of sufficient quantity.

The fruit of your doing, if it be of God, is because of your relationship to the source of the good fruit and nothing to do with your own effort. We do this all the time, thinking that if we try harder we will get the results we want. “Get the results we want.” Let that sink in for a second. Where is God’s will in that?

Is it right for us to choose what God’s will is in anything thing based on our feelings of inadequacy, insecurity or guilt? It is our part in all this to foster a healthy intimate relationship with our God and let everything flow out from there.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

The Hebrew word for reins here is kilyah which by definition literally is the kidney veins and figuratively is the seat of emotions and affections. The kidney veins carry the blood to the  kidneys for removed of impurities. Think about that for a moment.

Try, as in trying the blood, is bachan in the Hebrews which means to examine, to scrutinize. So let us examine these verse from God’s point of view. Since God knows all things from the beginning to the end, He already has knowledge of the blood test.

When the doctor sends you to the lab for a blood draw to test your kidney function, do you know the results of the test before they come back? No, you don’t, but why did the doctor order the blood draw in the first place? Because you were symptomatic.

God knows you better than you know yourself. Now let us look at the placement of these verses in scripture. What Word did it follow?

Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

There is your nominal standard for your blood test. Now you can see how you measure up.