1. An Evil Heart is Deceitful
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9
According to this verse in Jeremiah, the default condition of our heart is not love, but deceit. While we tend to associate the heart with true, pure emotion, the Bible teaches that the heart without Christ is bound to dishonesty and evil. In an age where we hear words like ‘misinformation’ and ‘fake news’ on a daily basis, it is clear that our hearts are all too happy to not only create but readily accept things that may or may not be true. The deceit of an unrepentant heart will lead us to lie to ourselves, lie to others, and manipulate the truth in subtle little ways to get us what it is that we think we want.
Jeremiah says that our hearts are ‘beyond cure’, and outside of Christ, this is certainly accurate. When we find ourselves and others around us relying on raw emotion to support falsehoods, we can see the effects of an evil heart.
The Solution: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10
When we pray for God to cleanse our hearts from deceit, he is faithful to reveal our sin to us, forgive us, and renew our hearts. Nothing we can do will ‘clean up’ our hearts. All of humanity is fallen, sinful, and broken before God. Yet through the grace and mercy of Christ, our deceitful hearts can be refreshed, renewed, and made whole.