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Tarah-Lynn Saint-Elien: She Reigns Devotional Day 1

“The Heart Knows”

Scripture reading: Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Matthew 15:10-20

We often view the heart simply as the home of our emotions. However, that is not how the Bible depicts it. As Seth Scott explains, the Bible does not “distinguish between the head and the heart, combining the elements of mind, will, and emotions together with the language of an organ that can feel, think, and act.”

One of my favorite verses, Matthew 12:34 (NIV), tells us that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” So not only is our heart the power source of our lives physically but what we hold within it eventually makes its way out of us and has the power to speak life or death over us spiritually.

The heart is a place that can be invaded with evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. According to Matthew 15:18-19, these are all things that defile us. Society tells us to follow our heart, but we can’t trust it.

In Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT), the condition of our hearts is described as “the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.” Solomon dwells on a parallel idea: “Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil” (Ecclesiastes 9:3 NKJV). I know . . . yikes, right?

It all may sound discouraging, but there’s hope. The condition of our heart matters to God because He didn’t just send His one and only Son on earth to die for bad habits or to see how well we can follow rules. Christ came for total transformation from the inside out; it’s a purifying that only He can do.

The Lord peers into our heart and can truly see what it contains on full display. First Samuel 16:7 says, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (NKJV). No one may know your deepest, darkest secrets, thoughts, and feelings, but God sees you for who you really are. He cares that we don’t remain the same.

In that light, tomorrow’s devotional looks at how God gives us pure hearts.

How do you feel about the fact that God can see intimately inside your heart? Does that comfort you, frighten you, or bring up yet another emotion?