Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. – Hosea 10:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 13, 2016): Hosea 10

Sometimes the heart lies. I know, that might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe that it is the truth. I also agree that we need to learn to see the world with our hearts, that we need to pursue our dreams with all of our hearts, but at the same time we need to understand this one truth – that sometimes the heart lies. Sometimes my heart makes me believe that something is important when it really is not. 

Sometimes my heart makes me feel as if I am dying and that there could not be any tomorrow, but the next morning the sun still rises, and life still continues. Sometimes the heart makes me utter statements in the dark that are simply not true by the light of day. Sometimes the heart lies.

Sometimes my heart also gets injured. There might not be anything as painful as a broken heart, and the heart seems to want to take its revenge on anything that might be around me. In those moments I need to understand that the heart lies - that this, too, is not truth.

Hosea points at the heart of the people and declares this one simple statement. The heart lies, but even though it is the heart that has lied, it is you who will bear the repercussions of the guilt into which your heart has led you. Your heart has told you that nothing is sacred, or that these stones and strangely hewn pieces of wood are sacred, but the heart lies. And each one of us is given the task of taming our hearts – and of being able to tell the difference between a truthful heart and one that lies.

And so God will destroy what you thought was important but is really not. God will take his action against the lies of the heart. Because, while the heart sometimes lies, God does not. He directs our steps toward what is important and away from the lies of the heart.

If only our hearts didn’t sometimes masquerade as the voice of God. Or maybe if only we had spent more time hearing the voice of God so that we did not believe the lies of the heart. Because sometimes … the heart lies.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hosea 11 & 12