The Deceitful Heart, Day One

I watched Beth Moore’s video devotional (below) yesterday. She challenged us to pray for 10 days and ask God how our heart is deceiving us (Jer. 17:9). She also encouraged us to listen for the answer. So I’m doing this because yesterday was a hard day where I felt like I was listening to lies and being deceived.

So I prayed about it, and this morning, while I rode the exercise bike (part of my exercise plan for my knee), I got out the Bible and decided to work on a chunk of Bible memory, returning to James from this summer.

I was biking and reading it out loud. As I read, I came to this verse in James 1:26:

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

Did you catch that? “… but deceives his own heart,….”  Well, that seemed pretty pointed. I’m deceiving my own heart when I don’t bridle my tongue. And that tells something about my faith.

I was expecting the answer to my prayer to be some sort of answer to my pathetic self absorption and “woe is me” attitude from the day before, but this went a completely different direction. I thought of all the ways I use my words and what they reveal and the trouble they cause when I don’t bridle my tongue. I wouldn’t have thought this a big problem for me, but as I thought about it, I could see areas where I need a greater obedience on this.

I don’t want to linger long here. It’s late and I’m tired, and my husband is calling for his computer, but I wanted to capture this first day and continue to ask God to reveal where I am being deceived.