Do You Condemn Yourself?

Some of us grew up in a religious environment - or perhaps a non-religious one - that centered on the sentiment expressed in this verse: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. - Jeremiah 17:9.

While there’s plenty of truth in that verse, the problem comes when we absolutize it, forgetting the hyperbole (read: intentional exaggeration to make a point). Sure, we’re messy people - but that’s not our truest self. Our truest, deepest, most permanent self is the one God created. the Bible speaks of it this way: So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. - Genesis 1:27, 31

How do you feel about truly embracing your goodness? Can you handle the tension of believing in your brokenness and your beauty at the same time? And what do you do when your heart just can’t be kind to itself?

One of the great passages to meditate on today can easily be read as a direct comment on that original passage above from Jeremiah: Even if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts. 1 John 3:20