We said a few days ago that the affairs of the heart are open to the gaze of the Lord. There is nothing therein that is hidden from Him. All the complexities and subtleties of our hearts are known to Him to the tiniest details. You see, the muddles and devices of the human heart when it is not rooted in God are not to be entirely trusted even by he that holds them. Our hearts are not just weak and frail, they are wicked and deceitful. Even when we think that we are on the right, there still lies sin in our hearts. More than we are aware of. Our hearts, in their apprehension of things, are deceitful in nature. A man’s heart is capable of coloring things to fit its narrative. It declares to those to whom peace does not exist that there is peace. A  heart lures one to their ruin. This is the state and the nature of the human heart. And it is impossible for someone to search their own heart through all its windings to reveal what is at the very bottom of it. No one can neither fully know his own heart nor that of his neighbor. It is unsearchable. And this is why the Lord tells Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that the heart of man is deceitful above all things. That none but the Lord can understand its motives. None but the Lord can search and know the mind of man. Only the Lord is fully acquainted with the affairs of the heart and mind of man. The thoughts and designs, the counsels and intentions the affections and determinations of humankind are only fully open to the inspection of the Lord. It is only He that can pass a just judgment on what He discerns. It would be to fool ourselves if we think we can rely on our own righteousness. And it’s my prayer that we may be cautious of the inclinations and direction of our hearts. May the Lord give us the grace to challenge our own hearts and minds and to judge them by the measure of God's truth. May we have the wisdom to trust God's testimony on the matter of our hearts because it is only from Him that we can receive instruction by which we can measure ourselves. You see, the truth is that the only way we can truly escape the deception of our own hearts and minds is by abiding in the Lord because the heart that is alienated from Him is sick and unreliable. Yes, sin has made a mark in our hearts even with the depth of a diamond point, but we have been called and grafted to He that can overwrite those marks. Yes, we live under constant temptation from without and from within. But we have been called to drink from the fountain that purifies the heart. And it’s my prayer that we may desire to drink from the very fountain of righteousness. That its waters may flow even to the deepest ends of our hearts and rid them of all deceitfulness. That the light of God’s word may shine even to the darkest corners of our hearts until no shadow of wickedness is left therein. May we surrender to Christ. May we let Him dwell in our hearts so that we may be rooted and grounded in Him that is righteousness itself. He died and rose so that the old self may die and we may receive a new nature. He was stricken so that our hearts may be healed. May we lean on Him. May we let Him search through our hearts and uproot all that is of the old nature until we are in sync with His nature. Until our will, our intentions, and thoughts are in sync with His. Because only then are we safe from the deceptions of our own hearts. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pastor-lucy-paynter/support