More Deceitful Still

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 243, More Deceitful Still.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9.

The culture around us has a favorite mantra: follow your heart. Trust what you feel. The heart knows. But Jeremiah, writing under God's inspiration, says the exact opposite. He says the heart is deceitful above all things. Not a little deceitful. More deceitful than anything else that exists.

That is uncomfortable to hear, because we like to believe that, deep down, our heart is on our side. That if we just listen closely enough, it will guide us right. But God's Word leaves no room for that illusion. The human heart, left to itself, lies. It rationalizes sin. It dresses up pride as conviction. It calls fear of being alone by the name of love.

And Jeremiah goes further: "desperately sick." That word describes something terminal, not a passing cold that clears up in a few days. It is a condition at the root, present since the fall, something no amount of self-effort can fully repair.

And then comes the question that echoes: "who can understand it?" It's rhetorical. The answer is: no one. Not even you. You can spend your whole life in therapy, self-analyzing, trying to understand why you react the way you do — and there will still be layers of your own heart hidden even from you.

But here is the good news tucked right into the very next verse, verse ten: "I the LORD search the heart." What is unfathomable to you is completely open before God. He sees every layer, every hidden motive, every lie you've told yourself without even realizing it — and even seeing all of that, He chooses to love you. Not a love based on ignorance of who you are. A love that already knows the worst and stays anyway.

And if the heart is the root of the problem, then the gospel cannot just be about fixing behavior. It does no good to change the outward actions if the root underneath is still sick. That's why, later in Jeremiah, God promises something revolutionary: a new heart. Not a reformed heart, patched up — a new heart, transplanted, alive.

So today, I want to invite you into a simple practice that requires some humility. Before you act on what your heart is telling you today — in a big decision, a reaction, a choice — stop and ask God: "Examine this for me. I don't blindly trust what I'm feeling. I trust the One who searches the heart."

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.