Who Can Know It? A Heart Check for Hard Decisions
A heart check for hard decisions
Who Can Know It?
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”JEREMIAH 17:9 (KJV)
The very next verse answers the question: “I the LORD search the heart.” (17:10)
So don’t trust your heart alone. Bring it to the One who knows it.
How this verse gets misused
Jeremiah 17:9 is true. But it gets twisted in ways that hurt people. Here’s what it does not mean.
Controlling partners, parents and leaders use this verse to override your “no.” But look four verses earlier, in the same chapter: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man” (17:5). The cure for a deceitful heart is God, not someone else’s control.
Wise counsel respects your freedom. Control demands it.
Fear around an unsafe person is not a wicked heart. It’s the alarm God built into you. Even Jesus withdrew from people who wanted to harm Him (John 8:59).
If you’re afraid, get safe first. Discernment comes after safety.
Scripture says the opposite: “These things have I written unto you… that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
Your assurance rests on Jesus, not on how steady your heart feels.
Jeremiah spoke to a nation deep in idol worship. The same book promises a new covenant: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (31:33), and Ezekiel 36:26 promises “a new heart.”
Stay humble, yes. Live ashamed, no.
Illness is not wickedness. Brain chemistry, trauma, hormones and medications all affect mood. Elijah’s despair was met with sleep and food, not a rebuke (1 Kings 19).
Getting treatment is wisdom, not a lack of faith.
God also says, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).
The goal isn’t to ignore your heart. It’s to test it, then move forward.
Lies my heart tells me
The deceitful heart rarely shouts. It whispers reasonable-sounding things. Recognize any?
“When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin” (James 1:15). Once is how every habit starts.
“Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). And God already knows.
He wants you whole and holy, and that brings a deeper joy (Hebrews 12:10–11).
“The woman… the serpent…” Blame is as old as the garden (Genesis 3:12–13).
“The little foxes, that spoil the vines” (Song of Solomon 2:15). Small things grow.
“Behold, now is the accepted time” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Monday never comes on its own.
Grace means none of us get what we deserve, and that’s good news (Psalm 103:10).
Keep going
Scripture quotations from the King James Version (public domain). What you type stays on this device unless you choose to send it.
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