Wisdom Wednesday
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
In the days of ‘follow your heart’, here is a sobering reminder. And Jeremiah knows from experience what God is revealing to Him. Israel has deceived themselves into thinking they could rely on their own martial arts or on the faithfulness of another nation (e.g. Egypt). They have followed their heart all the way to exile and destruction.
And therein lies the lesson. Not simply about following your heart - although we might pick this thread up on another Wednesday. But knowing your heart. The complicated thing for the Christian is that we have been given new hearts. So, our heart is no longer deceitful above all things.
But it is prone to wander. Our culture still pulls it toward sin. And our hearts have these neural pathways (mixed metaphor, I know!) that remembers what it was like to deceive and we fall back into pattern. So the new heart has the capacity for deception and God-honouring goodness. What are we to do? How do we know when we are deceiving ourselves and when we aren’t?
Know your heart. Search it. Ask the question - why did I do that? Why do I want that? What should my heart want? Reflect on these things and just maybe you can avoid the pitfalls that come from blindly following our hearts.
For Today:
Pray:
Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
In the days of ‘follow your heart’, here is a sobering reminder. And Jeremiah knows from experience what God is revealing to Him. Israel has deceived themselves into thinking they could rely on their own martial arts or on the faithfulness of another nation (e.g. Egypt). They have followed their heart all the way to exile and destruction.
And therein lies the lesson. Not simply about following your heart - although we might pick this thread up on another Wednesday. But knowing your heart. The complicated thing for the Christian is that we have been given new hearts. So, our heart is no longer deceitful above all things.
But it is prone to wander. Our culture still pulls it toward sin. And our hearts have these neural pathways (mixed metaphor, I know!) that remembers what it was like to deceive and we fall back into pattern. So the new heart has the capacity for deception and God-honouring goodness. What are we to do? How do we know when we are deceiving ourselves and when we aren’t?
Know your heart. Search it. Ask the question - why did I do that? Why do I want that? What should my heart want? Reflect on these things and just maybe you can avoid the pitfalls that come from blindly following our hearts.
For Today:
- Have you ever blindly followed your heart in something? How did it go?
- What is one good thing your heart desires?
- Ask God to help you search your own heart.
Pray:
- Praise the Father whose heart is always perfect, pure and wise.
- Give thanks for Jesus who gives us new hearts.
- Ask God for His Holy Spirit to help you and others pursue heart desires that honour God.
Posted in Wisdom Wednesday
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