Who can know ot? - one's heart?

-“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

Holy God makes the statement then asks the question “Who can know it?” He answers His own question by reminding us that “I, the Lord, search the heart and try the reins.” All of us have deceitful hearts. We are deceived in our hearts except when we make ourselves subject to the Word of God. Our heart is a reference to our emotions which can change circumstance by circumstance. Without strong biblical conviction and complete trust in the Lord and His Word, we can easily be led astray by our own deceitful heart. When the Bible says, a man “deceives his own heart” (James 1:26), it is a reminder of how wicked our heart can be. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:21-33).

The phrase translated “desperately wicked” literally means mortally ill. The sickness is so severe that unless something is done immediately, death well result. All of us have heart trouble in a spiritual sense. Not only is the heart the most deceitful voice a person hears, but is the one which leads to destruction. The sinner is lost not because God arbitrarily sends a helpless person to hell but because the sin that afflicts all mankind makes fellowship with God impossible.

Since our own conscience will not tell us the truth about our self, we must look elsewhere for an accurate evaluation. Other men cannot give us a reliable analysis, for they have the same kind of heart. Only God can see clearly into the inner resources of the heart. He alone can accurately test the true source of our desires. The word “reins” refers to the center of the emotional life, thus controlling (as with reins) a person’s behavior.

Why do we behave the way we do? Only God can tell us. We would do well to listen to Him, for one day we sill be judged upon the basis of what He know about us, rather than our own opinion of ourselves. Our pride will not let us see that.