Who Can Understand How Wicked the Heart is?

Question

Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

-Who can cleanse us from this deceit? Who can give us clean hands and a pure heart?

Answer 1

Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.

Answer 2

Only God can know the wickedness of mans heart. How many neighbors of convicted serial rapists and murderers have described them as a "nice young men who never caused a problem" and was considered "a good neighbor by all." And only God can cleanse the heart of deceit with His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. God bless you in your efforts to spread the Gospel of Christ.

Answer 3

Only a life united with Christ can be cleansed of the deceitfulness of the heart.

Answer 4

Yes and let's take a look at the life of Jeremiah, shall we?

Jeremiah prophesied an ineluctable, unavertible disaster. He launched his prophetic mission in his native village of Anathoth, but was rejected by the villagers. Jeremiah castigated the people bitterly for forsaking God and the Torah and turning to idolatry. With a sense of the inevitability of a terrible punishment, he felt disgusted with his life. Gradually he became the leading exponent of the approach which called for surrender to Babylonian might and not attempting a rebellion against its awesome strength under the auspices of Egypt. This was considered a defeatist stance and as such was rejected both by the people and by the various kings during whose reigns Jeremiah uttered his prophecies. He himself rejected the idea that Jerusalem and the Temple had an almost magical inviolability. Viewed as a traitor, Jeremiah was declared an outlaw during the reign of Zedekiah and placed in detention until the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. He saw the shattering of the last hope for the survivors of the carnage: the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians had appointed to rule over Judah. Although Jeremiah was saliently a prophet of apocalypse, he emphasized the temporary nature of the destruction and the consolation to be found in the certainty of the nation's return to its land.

Jeremiah had issues. I'm not buying into the whole wicked sinful thing, sorry.

Answer 5

Jesus
Romans 10

Answer 6

I'd ask you to pray. Search out whatever answers possible. I'm not trying to impose this on you, but I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have found answers there. I encourage you to find your own (or the same) answers, and try to be the best person that you can be.

Answer 7

Certainly not a mythical deity, that's for sure.

Answer 8

The cardiologist understands it... nothing is inherently anything, let alone "wicked"... let's be real.

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