The circumcised heart

This is Friday's reading, which I never commented upon and then I skipped Saturday. The Lord continues to list his people's sins, focusing on dishonesty and deceit and forsaking of the law, and then mourns over the desolation of the land that is the consequence of this behavior. Then he says:

Jeremiah 9:23-24
This is what the Lord says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord.

Then he finishes off by reiterating that the day of punishment is coming for those who are circumcised 'only in the flesh' and are 'uncircumcised in heart' like Israel.

God does not want any fakery. He sees right through it, straight to the heart of man. He is angered when our actions are evil, for those actions come out of an evil heart. He is also angered when our actions are fake, 'good' on the outside but coming from an evil, uncircumcised heart. God wants our hearts to be circumcised, to be devoted to understanding and knowing Him. From a circumcised heart will spring righteous actions and kindness and justice. My concern needs to be my heart. I am usually much more concerned with what shows than with what is in my heart, although the two are very intertwined. I try to act rightly even when my heart is NOT in the 'right place', and I think I have viewed that as a good thing. I'm thinking now that, if said right action, done despite evil in my heart, represents a struggle to resist evil and a desire to have my heart changed, then perhaps it is good. But if the right action is simply a way to hide my evil and boast in my own 'wisdom' or 'strength', then the net result is probably more harm than good, worse than if I had been honestly evil and born the consequences. The real lesson I am taking from this is that I should make every effort to deal with my heart in all circumstances. That is the thing that concerns God. He wants the source to be sound, then there is no worry about the actions. I need to concern myself more and more with my heart, which means simply listening to God's word and letting it reveal myself to me as it also reveals God to me. Then I will know and understand God, which is what the Lord says is of greater value than wisdom, strength, or riches.