We Can't Trust Our Hearts

Then some of the leaders of Israel visited me, and while they were sitting with me, this message came to me from the LORD: “Son of man, these leaders have set up idols in their hearts. They have embraced things that will make them fall into sin. Why should I listen to their requests? [Ezekiel 14.1-3]

The point I wish to highlight from this passage is that it seemed to be significant that "leaders" set up idols in their hearts. More specifically, their "embrace" of these idols made them fall into sin.

It is important for us to consider what things might be resident in our hearts - what things perhaps we have idolized - things that now hold us in sin.

It is furthermore important to consider that idols might indeed be inconspicuously set up in our hearts. It is entirely possible that we have idols in our hearts that we do not even know about!

How is that so? Because:

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? [Jeremiah 17.9]

So, how in the world then can we know if idols (evil) has been set up in our hearts? Simple: judgment will be evident - in other words - curses will be present (see Deuteronomy 28 to correctly identify curses). Ezekiel was prophesying all manner of curses upon God's people.

If curses are evident, then it is obvious that there is a reason - reason(s) for which repentance is necessary.

So, it is bad enough that we can be deceived ourselves. But it is even more problematic when leaders have idols set up in their hearts.

The bottom line is this: we all need to live in an attitude of repentance. When curses reveal sin in our hearts, we need to repent. Some of us have a LOT of repenting to do - we have a lot of inconspicuous idols set up in our hearts that need to be displaced by God's Holy Spirit.

Frankly, it seems a daunting task. And then, there are those spiritual persuasions (and their "leaders") that deny that curses are evidence of sin, and, there are those on the other end of the spectrum that "claim" all is redeemed ...while neither demonstrate any tangible power whatsoever. It's disgusting really. Neither tend to gravitate toward the idea of repentance (let alone the practice of it).

All I am getting from God's Word is that the disobedience of sin (including unbelief) is the source of all that is "wrong" in the world and our lives today. Jesus simply walked in the power of God and gave every indication that that was precisely what He intended that His followers (then and now) to do also.

Perhaps the greatest clue of what man needs was found in Jesus' words on the Cross, "Father forgive them..."

If Jesus saw the need, then we should repent. We can't trust our hearts.

Father, I keep coming back to the same message: that mankind needs to repent and stay repentant. I need to repent and stay repentant. Forgive me for ever thinking I can know my own heart and judge myself pure.