The Deceptive Heart
Who can understand the heart?
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The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10 (ESV)
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It’s not often that we get a question in the Bible that’s immediately answered.
Here we have the prophet Jeremiah recording some words from the Lord. God asks a question and then answers it.
Side note: I always pay attention to questions that God asks, because He’s never asking to find out knowledge. We ask questions all the time if we don’t know the answer, but God knows all answers to all questions. Thus, if He asks a question, then there’s almost certainly a lesson for us to learn through that question.
Anyway…
Who can understand the heart?
“Not I,” said the email writer.
“Nor I,” said the reader.
“I can,” said the Lord.
As a thinker, I often find myself frustrated when my feelings override my logic. Mr. Spock would be appalled at how I let my emotions take over.
What can I say? The heart wants what the heart wants.
God sees our hearts and tests our minds.
We can fool others, and we can fool ourselves, but we cannot fool God. Might as well stop trying to fool everyone else, too.
I suspect for unbelievers this could be a scary verse. But for believers, there’s a refreshment. I know that God is doing a transforming work in me, making me more like His Son. Thus, this searching my heart and testing my mind can all be turned to good fruit.
Yes, back to the fruit of the Spirit.
It’s all connected.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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