The human heart is deceptive above all things. Really? That's an amazing statement. But that's what Jeremiah, inspired by God, wrote in Jeremiah 17:0-10. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind. The Lord is speaking here through his prophet.
He's saying that the human mind is deceptive, deceitful, and beyond cure. The King James Version says, desperately wicked. Who can understand the mind? God asks. And then he answers, I can. Do you think you know yourself? Most of us do. But have you ever said something really rude or inappropriate and were immediately embarrassed?
I mean, you didn't mean to say it. It just popped out. And then you thought, where did that come from? Most of us have had that experience. It came from a hidden place in your heart, a place you weren't aware of or have tried to forget. Because there's pain there.
There are wounds, anger, pain, sin and offense that we cover over and think they're gone, but they're not. A second example of this is forgiveness. Think about an ex, an ex friend, ex girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever. Some relationship that just didn't end well. You thought you'd forgiven them and moved on.
But then you run into them, say, in the grocery store, and the hurt, offense or anger flares up in your heart again. I've actually hidden from people I didn't want to talk to. I go down another aisle or avoid them in some way. Don't laugh. I bet you have, too.
You thought the hurt, the anger, the offense was gone, but it wasn't. It was still there, and it still hurt. God knows our hearts. He knows what's churning away deep inside us, hidden, waiting to hurt us and causing us to say or do things we really don't want to do.
He knows every hidden desire, every wound, every hidden sin and ungodly belief in the depths of our hearts. And he wants to heal them all.