Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
In an attempt to keep church members from making ungodly decisions, especially within gray areas, this Scripture has been misused by toxic church culture to keep people from making decisions based on anything other than the Bible.
But, as said above, the Bible can have a lot of gray areas! And there isn’t always one right answer when it comes to a career change, a relationship, a move, etc.
For me, hearing this Scripture brought up in so many irrelevant scenarios caused a deep distrust within me. I didn’t trust myself to be anything but selfish, even when I was simply taking care of myself!
Further, it caused me to ignore red flags from a toxic church environment because maybe I was just being prideful. Because “maybe my heart was just lying to me.”
But Job 38:36 also says, “Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?”
Our gut feelings are from God. Our ability to match the right principles with the right situation with the right nuance, otherwise known as wisdom, comes from God. And our heart’s ability to tell us the truth is a gift from God!
Proverbs 11:14 exhorts us with “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.” So advice is a good thing. Getting different opinions about gray areas is a good thing.
But it doesn’t mean that your own heart can’t be trusted. And trusting your heart, leaning into what it’s telling you, is actually a doorway into a rich, textured, full faith. One that can still see God through all the church-y chaos.
Wading through these principles and finding out what I think a scripture is saying based on who I believe God to be has been a journey over the past several years. If you’re on that journey now, I sincerely hope and have confidence that it will lead you to a God who is more loving, patient, creative, gracious and fun and believes in you more than you ever thought possible.
Let go of religiosity. Hold onto God.
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