“DESPERATELY SICK!”

Jeremiah 17:9-10                         (ESV)

“9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and “DESPERATELY SICK”; who can understand it? 

10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."  

So many times we hear it said to “follow your heart” and you will do the correct things.  However Scripture seems to indicate something entirely different?  The HOLY SCRIPTURE is GOD’s inerrant, infallible WORD and we need to pattern our lives after its precepts and instructions, and NOT do what our hearts lead us to do!  

Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful ABOVE ALL THINGS, so why is it that we so often do whatever our heart is leading us to do, when we are told by our CREATOR that we ALL are “DESPERATELY SICK”?  When we are physically “DESPERATELY SICK” we go see a physician because they are trained to diagnose what is wrong with us.  Last year it felt like I had pulled a muscle in my upper chest.  After getting checked out by a trained professional, quadruple bypass surgery was performed to alleviate the self-diagnosed “pulled muscle”???

Sometimes we are “deceived” into believing that we are “not that bad”, that our HEARTS ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE, all the while we have “blockages” (SIN) that is preventing THE BLOOD from getting where it needs to go!  Being physically self-diagnosed could have been a fatal mistake for me.  Being Spiritually self-diagnosed can be just as tricky when our “..... adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)!  

NEVER trust YOUR HEART when you are trying to find out what isn’t right with your body.  But more importantly, NEVER trust YOUR HEART when you are “DESPERATELY SICK”, in need of a RISEN SAVIOR!  Trusting in “your goodness” will be a costly mistake by MANY people who claim that they are “just as good” as others.  They might be “DESPERATELY SICK” and are self-diagnosing themselves into an eternal Judgement???