Many years ago, I worked as a construction manager with a real estate development firm. While there, I met and befriended a very outgoing and opinionated fellow who had recently become a Christian. He was one of those that seemed to think because he had been saved, that he had also been gifted with infinite wisdom. He attended a church that was known to be demonstrative and vociferous in their worship.
He was excited about his new life as a believer which was somewhat refreshing to me at the time. I noticed that he had certain catch phrases that he had picked up at his church and would frequently drop them into his conversations. One of those was, “the answer is in your heart.” I too, was a relatively new believer and this statement intrigued me. I even caught myself using it in my own discussions of various theological matters. I really just liked the sound of it and it made me feel like I had learned something that other’s had not.
Within a few months, I would hear a very fiery and impassioned sermon on the heart of man. I immediately abandoned the the phrase and sincerely hoped that others had forgotten my use of it.
When one says, “the answer is in your heart,” they imply that all of the answers to life’s questions are neatly packed away in the vault of our being. They can be accessed when we have reached a certain spiritual plateau. If we are still searching for answers, then we just have not “arrived,” spiritually speaking. By the way, if this were true we could then simply place our bibles in moth balls and commune solely with the creator. So why not? Why can we not move away from God’s Word and depend on our hearts for the answers to life’s questions?
BECAUSE OUR HEARTS ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY!
Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mark 7:21 – For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders.
Romans 1:21 – Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Romans 3:10-18 – As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one
Isaiah 64:6 – But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
I suppose that the answer to one question is, in fact, in our heart. That question is why are we drawn to sin? We find the answer in the scriptures above. Our hearts need the ongoing cleansing made possible by the Holy Spirit of God. In Ephesians 5:26-27 it says of Christ, “that He might sanctify and cleanse her (His bride, you and me) with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Meanwhile, our steadfast prayer should be,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10