Weekly Devotion: The Heart

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9

Psychologists and well-meaning friends alike may tell us to “follow our heart”, but according to the verse above, that is the worst possible advice you could give someone! Your “heart” will trick you into thinking wrong because it is flawed. Proverbs 28:26a teaches that, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool…” even from the very first mention in scripture, we see that the unregenerate “heart” of fallen man has a problem.

“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5

The scriptures are full of descriptions and illustrations of the depravity of man’s “heart”, Mark 7:20-23 lists 13 evils that proceed out of the heart. The dilemma intensifies when we understand that only the “pure in heart… shall see God”

·         “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

·         “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Hebrews 12:14

So if our “heart” is impure by nature and our “heart” has to be “pure” / holy, in order to see God, we must have our hearts’ cleansed / purified by “faith”!

“And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:8, 9

So “faith” is necessary for our “heart” to be made pure, but this “faith” has to be an all or nothing faith, sacrificed from a “broken and a contrite heart” in order for God not to despise it.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Psalm 51:17

Friend, we have all experienced “heart” aches and have had our “heart” broken over relationships and disappointments, but “harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15) towards God. It may be that your heart has been callused by years of abrasion, from an often-rough world. Your need is to “circumcise …your heart” (Deuteronomy 10:16) by letting God’s two-edged sword pierce your heart and cut away the flesh of the old man so it can be made tender again. You need to ask God to “search” you and “lead” you “in the way everlasting”.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23, 24

A wise preacher once said, “The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart”, and so it is. Would you be willing, as King David was, to acknowledge your sin and invite God to “create” in you a “clean heart” right now so that you can survive the spiritual “heart” attacks of the enemy?

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10