Deceitful hearts

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

How many times do we think if I just had this job or this relationship or this much support from my friends and family that everything would feel much better? We are to feel much better just knowing that God is the one that is in control, not man, not society, and for sure not the economy. Matthew Henry writes in his commentary regarding this scripture that we should not place our trust in man. That means not putting your trust in a job, a position in the church, friends or even family. Our trust is to be in God and God alone. Though even when we try to do this he states that, "We think that we trust in God when really we do not, as appears by this [entitled blessings], that our hopes and fears rise or fall according as second causes smile or frown.” We must keep our focus on Jesus lest we grow weary in doing good.

We also error when we think we can know others hearts or even our own for, “The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen state, is deceitful above all things……. it is deadly, it is desperate.” Mr. Henry comments that we cannot know what we will do during an hour of temptation, nor can we understand our own errors, “Much less can we know the hearts of others, or have any dependence upon them.” He comforts us that God is the one that has all this knowledge that surpasses all of our “artfully disguised” ways of concealing our heart.  “Therefore God is Judge himself, and he alone, because he, and none besides, knows the hearts of the children of men.”

1Cr 15:58  Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

1Sa 2:3  “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.