“Well, God knows my heart.” How many times have you heard someone say that? Have you said it yourself? I have. Most often we mean that our heart is right and we had good intentions, but somehow our actions didn’t quite live up to the expectations of our heart. “But God understands—He knows my heart.”
The truth of the matter is: God does know our hearts. He knows us better that we even know ourselves. Psalm 44:21 tell us, He knows the secrets of the heart. In those moments when we are really honest with God and ask Him to shine the light of His Holy Spirit on our lives, He will reveal things to us that need to be changed. And when we are faced with His displeasure, we find ourselves wishing we had just remained in ignorance, because now that we know, we have to decide: Will we live in such a way that we continue to displease Him, or will we obey what He is telling us to do?
Jeremiah 17:9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. That’s not what I want to hear from God’s Word. I like to think of myself as a good person who lives right. But the Word makes it clear that all of us have wicked hearts. The Lord said in Genesis 8:21 that the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
No amount of trying to be good will change a wicked heart. Outward changes can be made, but they will be short lived if the heart is not changed. The only One who can change a heart is God. It is easy for us to comprehend that sinners have wicked hearts. But even those of us who are His children can be deceived into believing that our hearts are in much better condition than they really are. It is only when we ask Him to search our hearts and show us what is inside that we become aware of the truth. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
Father, I am asking You to search my heart and show me the areas of my life that need to change. I want to repent of the sin that You reveal, so that You will lead me in the way everlasting.
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