Getting to the Root of the Problem
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?
But I, the LORD, search all hearts
and examine secret motives.
I give all people their due rewards,
according to what their actions deserve.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10 NLT
We talked about this verse on a retreat I recently attended. It brought up some questions I wrestled with. This was the Old Testament. Didn’t Jesus give me a new heart when I trusted my life to Him? (implied in Romans 8:10, Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 10:22) If so, why were we confronting how wicked our hearts are? I don’t like to think of the wickedness of the human heart. It is yucky and unpleasant.
On that same retreat, we also read excerpts from Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive by John Eldredge. It challenged us with the question: In general, what if our hearts were actually good? Imagine what we could do if we believed the motive of every desire was good. We wouldn’t second-guess our choices – we could do anything – and it would be good!
But… how can our heart be desperately wicked, yet generally good? I didn’t understand.
I expressed my confusion to a staff member, and she explained to me that the verse can also be read as “the heart is sick.” Thinking of it that way made more sense to me. This described it in a state in which there was hope for help.
After the retreat, I continued to reflect on what I had learned. We were encouraged to dig more deeply into the verses presented to us on the retreat, including Jeremiah 17:9-10. I read it in several different versions, and The Message version helped me see this verse in a different light:
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, GOD, search the heart
and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
not as they pretend to be.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10 MSG
This version of these verses gave me hope. Instead of hearing in my mind or heart “The human heart is wicked and deceitful and no one can do anything about it,” I heard, “This human heart that seems hopeless can be helped by God. He is the one who can get to the root of why it is actually wicked or sick.”
Have you ever dealt with pain or sickness, or know someone who has, that had an unknown cause? Maybe you sought medical help or advice, but you were only given a solution to the symptoms and not the real problem. Their symptoms may have been relieved, but the problem still existed.
In these verses, God is telling us He can search our hearts. He can find the real problems that are causing the symptoms in our hearts, in our lives. He gets to the root of it. He takes care of it. He goes much deeper than just treating the symptoms. He will take care of it.
In my wrestling, I discovered I had been believing the lie that I am broken and I need to fix myself. Holy Spirit revealed to me that Jesus said, “My body was broken for you.” (Luke 22:19) His body was broken so I don’t have to be. This still didn’t create an understanding for everything to make sense to me, but I could believe what Jesus said. It felt like a lie had been pulled out by the roots. A huge weed of a lie that was affecting many areas of my life. Removing this lie by the roots created more room for the true and good things to grow. It gave space for good things where there wasn’t some before.
In His great Love, He exposes the roots of what lead to the wickedness and sickness. I know when He does that He makes us clean, whole and pure. That is how He wants us to be.
LORD GOD,
My heart has been hopeless – lost and sick. But You search it out and find the real problems to my symptoms. You dig them out, make me clean, heal me, and make me whole. Thank You for that. Amen.
Awesome post Lindsey! Thanks for sharing!