FAITH CAPSULE: Heart of man is deceitful above all things, who can know it?
2 Samuel 11
Man cannot be hidden before God. It is man’s heart that presents man before God. Every doing of man under heaven is clearly open before God because heart is where man’s action is fashioned under heaven. God sees all about man’s doing through the heart of man. Genesis 6:5 testified how heart exposed man’s wickedness before God, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Heart of man is not open for fellow man to see man’s heart but only God can see and know what transpires in the heart of man. Jeremiah 17:9 recorded, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
The Bible clearly pointed out the heart of man is where the rise and fall of man begins. Satan makes heart of man as his important target for a launching pad to attack. Judas spent time with Jesus yet his heart made him available as a playground for Satan. The book of Luke 22:3-4 stated, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.” Satan went after the heart of Judas to establish his plan of betraying Jesus. Invariably, faith will fail when the enemy attacks the heart of man. Peter was close to Jesus and could also have been a victim of the devil. Once Jesus said to him, “…Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32) The only proven target for the enemy to strike is the heart. Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, were not forced to voluntarily sell their possession to buttress the fellowship of others, but they came up lying about the proceedings, “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep part of the price of the land for yourself? (Acts 5:3)
Evil doing is the business of Satan and he has taken the heat of man as target. However, the heart that is not reachable by Satan as target is the heart with constant engagement to the word of God by meditating on the word of God. Besides meditating the word of God to disengage Satan from one’s heart one must be cautious of what eyes are feeding on for heart’s consumption. King David, a man after God’s heart carelessly, not diligently keeping his heart when he set eyes recklessly on Uriah the Hittite’s wife (Bathsheba) David sent messengers to Bathsheba and lay with her. Eventually Bathsheba conceived and David responded with crime before God when he eventually set-up the death of Bathsheba’s husband (Uriah). Keep heart diligently from evil by meditating the word of God.
Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of keeping heart diligently.