December 17, 2025 -- Jeremiah 17:10 -- Sin, blame-shifting, and God's amazing healing

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The heart is deceitful above all things,
   and desperately sick;
   who can understand it?
I the LORD search the heart
   and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
   according to the fruit of his deeds.
Jeremiah 17:10 ESV
 
In Hebrew heart is kidneys, or guts. You know the expression, “I feel it in my guts”, right? In Hebrew culture the seat of emotions and the place where unconscious decisions are formed is in the deep, inner place. So much of what we do flows from the inner heart, which is, as God reveals to His people, deceitful and sick. It needs to be tested. It needs to be purified. God searches the heart and tests the mind, He provides pains, trials, circumstances and experiences in life which require a believer to rely on the Holy Spirit and ask, “Am I going it alone, or am I really trusting God for all I need?”
 
When we realize how deep-rooted sin is, how it has penetrated to the emotive centre and the rational brain so that even our self-examination is even tainted, it is at that moment we realize what we’re fighting. And, thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we also realize how great is the work of God effected in us.
 
What is sin? Even in our repentance we can sin. Tim Keller calls it “counterfeit repentance”.  “One counterfeit is blame shifting. ‘I’m sorry, but you know it really isn’t my fault.’ But real repentance takes full responsibility for your sin. One way to shift blame is to justify our sin. The seventeenth-century writer Thomas Brooks called it ‘painting sin with virtue’s colors.’ We look at ourselves and say, ‘I’m not greedy, I’m just thrifty;’ ‘I’m not proud, just assertive…” Timothy Keller, Forgive. Penguin Books, 2022, page 143).
 
When the LORD of Glory has, by His Spirit, illuminated the deceitfulness of your heart and revealed to you the sickness of your mind, the counterattack begins. Sin’s warped protectiveness is to shift blame, to cause many distractions so that the heart and mind tell you: “Listen, you do not really need to repent, do not need to change according to the perfections of God’s holiness.” That is blame shifting. Excuses then follow. “I know I did this bad thing, but I was forced to do it”. Or, “I had no other choice.” The penetrating light of the Spirit holding high the Word of God, which cuts away lies from their clinging, parasitic hold on you, will not let you wriggle away unchanged.
 
Thanks be to God, He reveals our waywardness. Thanks be to God He shows how deceitful and desperately sick the heart is—once the diagnosis is made, the appropriate remedy can be applied. When the Spirit has shown you your sin, confess it. No excuses. No blame-shifting. No counter accusations against others. Own it. Confess it. Repent of it. To repent is to decisively turn away from that sin and make the commitment ever to go back to it. Wherever necessary to stay true to God, do that, so that you move further away from sin and closer to the God blesses your trust in Him (Jeremiah 17:7). Furthermore, acknowledge, those around you have as deceitful a heart as you have and as desperately a sick heart and mind as you do. Be patient. Kind. Enduring the backlash of others until the Spirit, in grace and love, rescues your brother or sister and restores to them the joy of true fellowship. By the way, there are others who are already treating you that way. These fellow Christians, having been healed of their own significant sins and lawlessness, wait for you, are patient with you, as they trust the Spirit will, by His gracious timing and love, finally show to you your significant sins and lawlessness. When you repent and join them in declaring the goodness of God, you will realize in all things, the reconciling work of Jesus is revealed, and the patience of God is proven to be glorious.
 
Oh God, Whose Name is the LORD—faithful, true, holy in all You do—blessed are You. Thank You for the great salvation You have forged in us through Jesus Christ. Thank You, that by Your Spirit, You are making this rich and glorious salvation effective in every part of the heart, mind and soul of your people. Thank You that You work in us individually, and that You work in us through family, through covenant community and church family. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/tGohh1gGTug?si=YhyHpnCSbR9n42bN Gentri: Still, Still
 

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