Deceitful Heart

Few things can be more painful than the feeling of being deceived. Sadly, being deceived is something we’ve grown to expect in our society, in politics, in business and at work. But it’s not something we expect from the people closest to us, like our family, friends and associates, yet it happens all the time. The truth is that we’re all susceptible to deceit. The real problem however, is that no one has more potential and no one will ever be able to deceive you more than your self. If you don’t believe me it’s because more than likely you’re in denial, you’ve deceived yourself to believe that you can trust yourself. But, think about all the bad decisions you were able to convince yourself to make. Oh yes, you excuse and blame others for them. But the only common denominator present in ALL of your bad decisions was, you.

God speaking through the prophet Jeramiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. ”  (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV). The word deceit that God uses to describe our hearts also translates to polluted and crooked. And, to make matters worse God says, that our polluted and crooked hearts are beyond cure. The bad news is that as long as we live in our earthly bodies our hearts will continuously deceive us and there’s nothing we can do to cure the problem. The good news is that there’s a way to fool-proof our hearts so that we do not deceive ourselves.

Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

Everyone, and sadly even many preachers are going to tell us that we have to trust our hearts. But, God has already said that we can’t trust our hearts because they’re polluted and crooked. That’s why the way to foolproof our lives is not by trusting our hearts but rather by directing our hearts to trust God in everything. And God who will NEVER deceive us will show us which path to take.

In what areas of your life do you need to trust God with all of your heart?