Daily Devotional – Thursday, 15, 2022
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)
“Follow your heart.” You must have heard this advice many times. It implies that you need to ignore your logic and follow your intuition and emotions when making decisions. When it comes to matters of love, you are better of listening to your heart, so they say.
Who Can Know the Heart?
According to this maxim, if your mind says NO, while your heart says YES, follow your heart. It is as if the mind is a weak, erratic and untrustworthy. This notion, however, is debatable especially in the scientific realm.
Now, ponder what Prophet Jeremiah had to say about the heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The heart is this context refers to the mind, spirit, soul and our mental and emotional understanding.
The Perils of Listening to the Mind
In essence, God warns against listening to our hearts or minds. How can you trust it if it lies to you and is wicked beyond understanding? Indeed, no one can comprehend the impishness of the heart.
How can you follow your heart when making decisions? Does that explain the many blunders we make? Would you expect pure thoughts and righteous actions from a man conceived in sin and accustomed to evil?
Search My Heart
If the heart or mind is unworthy and we should not listen to it, where shall we turn to for guidance? “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!” (Job 14:4). Only God can perform this miracle.
Like David, we must make this our prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxieties. And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Will You Listen to Your Heart?
Do not listen to your heart. Listen to God. He will give you a new heart and a new beginning (Ezekiel 36:26). Do not allow your heart to deceive you. On your own, you can do nothing. Trust fully in God.
Prayer
Dear God, I will listen to Your voice and follow it because my heart is untrustworthy.
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