Doesn't God Know My Heart? - Soul Choice Ministries

The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; who can know it?

—Jeremiah 17:9

Yes, God does know your heart, and that’s the problem. The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). As a matter of fact, it says, “Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live” (Eccles. 9:3). So, if you are going to use that approach, you surely won’t make it.

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. —Proverbs 28:26

God’s opinion of our hearts is quite different from our own. We think we are pretty good; however, the natural man without God in his heart is opposed to God’s ways.

In Your sight no one living is righteous. —Psalm 143:2

Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” —Proverbs 20:9

There is none who does good, no, not one. —Romans 3:12

The Bible also mentions that our hearts can:

Be obstinate (Ps. 101:4)
Be in error (Ps. 95:10)
Imagine mischief (Ps. 28:3)
Be proud (Ps. 101:5)
Utter perverse things (Prov. 23:33)
Be desolate (Ps. 143:4)
Devise wicked imaginations (Prov. 6:18)
Be filled with reproach (Job 27:6)
Be evil (Jer. 3:17)
Be filled by Satan (Acts 5:3)
Be secretly enticed (Job 31:27)
Be able to walk after our eyes (Job 31:7)

The problem is with us. In Matthew 13:15 Jesus said, “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.” The fact is that many don’t want to see and understand. They have closed their eyes to the truth, and God will not override our free will. We must be willing to seek after Him while He may be found (Acts 17:27). He will give us that new heart. Ezekiel 18:31 says: “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die?”

When we assert, “God knows my heart,” we infer that His knowing our heart should help our case. But if God were to go by our hearts, you can see that we would all be in serious trouble. Rather, in spite of knowing our hearts, He still loves us and is always seeking to reveal Himself to us (Ps. 86:5; 145:8–9).

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer said:

Left to ourselves, we are filled with suspicion, greed, and fear. We will take advantage of others to enrich ourselves; we will become obsessed with self-interest, caring little for the welfare of our neighbors…Pascal was right when he said, “There is nothing that we can see on earth which does not either show the wretchedness of man or the mercy of God.”

Only God can give us that heart that seeks after Him.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. —Psalm 51:10

Then I will give them a heart to know Me. —Jeremiah 24:7

I will . . . take the stony heart out of their flesh. —Ezekiel 11:19

I will give you a new heart. —Ezekiel 36:26

Through the reading of His Word, our minds are renewed, and we become more like Jesus. Our foolish concepts begin to fall away. Many Christians don’t read the Bible, and their thoughts and heart can be deceived. This deception leads us to embrace the world’s way of thinking and behaving. Even as believers, those things which we might otherwise deem as wrong, tempting or inappropriate suddenly seem perfectly acceptable. Our filter for recognizing God’s way as opposed to the world’s way becomes clouded. It is a lifelong process in learning His Word in order to become more like Him. The more of His Word we get down into our hearts, the more loving, compassionate, forgiving and discerning we become.

With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You! —Psalm 119:10-11

A godly heart is a heart that desires to serve Him and that loves Him (Ps. 119:67; Prov. 3:1–5; 6:21).

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness —1 John 1:9

Excerpt from Bill’s book, 23 Questions About Hell