“Follow your heart!” they say.
It won’t mislead you! You will find your destiny! You will find true happiness and meaning, should you but stay true to your own heart!
This is the belief all of mankind has been prone to believe; that being a self-governed individual leads to freedom and happiness.
Then, sadly, things fall apart. Life goes from bad to worse and we don’t know how to deal with all the darkness. Life seems pointless and cold.
Our hearts become calloused and uncaring. Our minds become diseased with anger, greed and other depravities. We have very little hope because our heart is conditioned to follow itself.
At times, we might catch a glimpse of the condition of our cold heart toward others, but we don’t know that it is such a big deal because, after all, our hearts led us here, and it would never mislead.
Or, would it?
The heart would have us believe we are self-sufficient. That we are our own beginning and end; the reason for our very life.
The sad truth about our hearts, is that it can be a deceitful thing. It can drive a person to do and say things they wouldn’t if they were otherwise trained. When left to itself, it has the capacity of deceiving us into our own ruin.
Truths About our Heart
“the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:8
“for hearts devise violence, and their lips talk trouble.” Proverbs 24:2
“the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live” Ecclesiastes 9:3
“They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” Ephesians 4: 18
You see, the heart, when left ungoverned, will grow dull. Our spiritual ears will turn deaf, and our spiritual eyes will grow blind. (Acts 28:7)
But we needn’t become discouraged. We need only be aware of how the heart can mislead, so we can become motivated to condition and equip ourselves with truth.
So how do we wage war against our heart, lest it threaten to overtake and deceive us?
- We pray for our hearts to be opened like Lydia’s so we can understand the word of God. (Acts 16:14)
- In humble repentance, we choose to make His statutes our heritage and set our hearts on keeping His law to the end. (Ps. 119:111-112) His law is to love from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith. (1 Tim.1:5)
- We store up God’s word in our hearts so that we can become established in His truth. (Ps.119:11)
- We think soberly on our life, and ask God to teach us to number our days so that we can be given a heart of wisdom. (Ps. 90:12)
The greatest sickness of mankind is that although we know God, we do not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks. As a result our mind becomes futile and our heart severely darkened to the point where it overtakes us and we are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. (Romans 1:21&29)
But there is hope.
Should we humble ourselves, pray and seek the Lord’s face, we know He will be faithful and just to heal us from our sin and heart sickness.
Tucked away in 2 Chronicles 7:14 there lies a beautiful promise. The Lord Himself said:
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”**
Sweet one, it’s healing time. So let’s get to praying, seeking and turning.
**In context, this verse is not intended for us to claim for national healing and revival of our land today. However, I do believe we can appreciate it as a beautiful promise for the healing and revival of the cold, hard ground in our hearts.
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I believe that we as a nation need to individually spend more time seeking God’s face and each turning from our own wicked ways (because we are all sinful humans). But it seems like everyone is quick to point out their neighbor’s wicked ways…and not in a humble way :-/ Thank you for the reminder from God’s word about my heart!