Who can fix my heart?

The Bible places an emphasis on the heart as the epicenter of all human thought and behavior.

Let me illustrate with two key passages--

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23

Solomon does a good job making the point here. He simply says, "watch what is going on in your heart because it will determine everything else in your life."

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45

Jesus echoes Solomon here by making the point that every evil action can be traced back to an evil heart and every good action back to a good heart.

Both passages make the point that the heart is the seat of emotions and behavior. It is the epicenter of all action.

And that makes what God says in Jeremiah 17:9 all the more troubling for both Israel and for us:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Uh oh. So, the heart is the epicenter of action and the seat of all emotions and behavior but it also deceitful and desperately sick? This does not sound good.

And it isn't good.

The truth is that all of our hearts are infected with sin and it shows in the way we live our lives.

God has been getting on to Israel for its' sin for about 17 chapters now in Jeremiah, but He finally boils their problems down to one single source--their sinful hearts.

Are you consistently stepping outside of the will of God?

Are you consistently struggling with sin(s)?

If so then the source of your behavior can be traced back to a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked.

And Jeremiah, like you, found himself wondering aloud, "who can understand it?"

Are you there? Have you reached the point of exhaustion and confusion where you just want to throw up your hands and say, "Will I ever beat this? Can I ever change?"

And the truth is we are capable of cleaning up the outside and dressing ourselves up "morally," but we are incapable of fixing the internal heart problem.

Consider this analogy. Let's say you have a heart that is failing. You might be able to stop eating foods high in cholesterol and start exercising but you are incapable of performing surgery on the failing heart which is the real problem.

So, now what?

The answer will come later in Jeremiah but for now let's skip over to Ezekiel and find God's remedy for a sick and sinful heart.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

God's remedy for Israel, and for us, is simple--a heart transplant. The heart you and I were born with was deceitful and desperately wicked due to its infection with sin. God knows that we are incapable of fixing our internal problem.

So, God's remedy is to give us a heart transplant. He wants to take out the old heart and put in a new heart.

Notice how he contrasts the two hearts, old and new, in Ezekiel.

The old heart is a heart of stone. Why stone? Because stone is impenetrable and incapable of changing. You and I could took a bow and arrow (old school I know) out to a giant boulder and shoot arrows at it until we drop but it isn't going to affect the boulder.

In much the same way, Israel's (and ours) sinful hearts would not respond to the attempts of God to mold them.

So, God promises to give them a new heart of flesh. Why flesh? Because it only takes one arrow sticking out of your flesh for you to be affected.

And that is what God wants--affectation.

Let me close this blog post by separating the readers into two groups and asking each group a question.

1) If you are reading this blog and you are not yet a Christ-follower then you should know that you keep sinning because you have a heart problem. Are you willing to cry out to Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection serve as the means to giving you a new heart?

2) If you are reading this blog and you are a Christ-follower then are you waking up each morning and asking God to help you live with a heart of flesh and not of stone? Are you asking God to be affected by your sin and by his molding?

Who can fix my heart? God can through His Son Jesus Christ.