Jeremiah 13:23-27

23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?
Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
24 “Therefore I will scatter them like stubble
That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
25 This is your lot,
The portion of your measures from Me,” says the LORD,

“Because you have forgotten Me
And trusted in falsehood.
26 Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face,
That your shame may appear.
27 I have seen your adulteries
And your lustful neighings,
The lewdness of your harlotry,
Your abominations on the hills in the fields.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
Will you still not be made clean?”
Jeremiah 13:23-27 NKJV

The past does affect the future. Habits learned yesterday will guide what one does tomorrow. When one is accustomed to doing wrong it becomes impossible to do right. Just as we cannot change the color of our skin and leopards cannot move their spots from one place on their hide to another, so we are going to continue to do evil. When we forget God and trust in the lies of Satan and the lies of men, then we will walk in darkness and our ways will be wicked.
Are we then hopeless, once we've decided to go against God and learned to live according to the desires of our own hearts and become accustomed to doing evil? In Ezekiel, God promises to put a new spirit and a new heart, a new heart of flesh to replace the heart of stone that we develop when we continuously fight against God. Verse 27 Jeremiah 13 offers us a choice. Our wickedness and our running after the false gods in our lives are contrasted with the opportunity to have Jesus cleanse us. We are dirty, filthy, with abominations filling us when we walk after our own desires. We can choose to be cleansed by God as it says in Revelation 1:5-6; Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. He will wash us from our sins, He will make us clean and we will be kings and priests to God and to His glory. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin and the leopard cannot change his spots, but we will be changed through the power and glory of God to give up our desires to do wrong. We will be given pure hearts that desire to follow God. We will give up the evil we are accustomed to doing and through the power of Jesus form new habits, where we are accustomed to do good. We choose to follow God, and God changes us into children with hearts receptive to Him and His love. We choose Him, God changes us.

Lord,
Help me today to allow Your cleansing power to change my heart of stone, accustomed to do wrong, into a heart of flesh that will be guided by you into a relationship of love with You. Help me to grow today in my ability to see truth and falsehood as You see them. I want to live a life in the truth, I want to push away the lies of the world and the lies of the devil to walk in the light of Your truth. Help me to let You hold me and guide me. Help me to accept the truth when You reveal it to me.