Have you ever had a desire to cover something up in your life?

Maybe it was something you were ashamed of, something you wanted to change or something you were embarrassed by.

There was an event in the life of King David that he desperately wanted to cover up. David had some fierce enemies over his lifetime. His fiercest enemy was not Goliath. His fiercest enemy was not King Saul. His fiercest enemy was not the armies of the Philistines.

David’s fiercest opponent was the man in the mirror. The most challenging battle he fought was in his own heart and mind. It is a battle we must all fight.

In Jeremiah 17:9, we read, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

You might want to push back on this passage and say, “I know that my heart’s not perfect, but I wouldn’t describe my heart as desperately wicked.”

I get that, but there is a keyword in this passage that we need to pay attention to — deceitful. What this means is that our heart can be misleading. It is possible that a person can be deceived or not fully aware of what’s going on, even in their own heart.

Has there ever been a moment in your life when you surprised yourself by something you said or did? Maybe you even wondered, “Where did that come from?” It’s almost like there are two versions of you.

There’s the healthy you, and the unhealthy you. There is the gracious, kind, well-balanced, patient version of you, and there is the unhealthy, stressed-out, short-tempered version of you. It’s almost like there is one of those Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kinds of thing going on.

Those moments when you are surprised by something you thought, something you said or something you did (and we’ve all had them) reveal something about the condition of your heart. And while you may try to conceal it or cover it up, you can rest assured, eventually, whatever is in your heart, it will come out.

The Proverb writer warned us to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23) We need to pay close attention to the condition of our heart. This really is the most epic battle any of us will face. Unfortunately, many have chosen not to heed this warning.

Steve Greene is the lead pastor of The Point in Seymour. Read his blog at pastorgreene.wordpress.com or email him at [email protected]. Send comments to [email protected].