Do you have a broken or bruised heart?
Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is more deceitful than all else in this desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deep above all else, and so is man, and who shall understand him? NETS
Some people reading the scripture will believe that it means you can never trust your own heart.
Yet this was before the fulfillment of the promise to write his laws on our heart Romans 2.12-16
There are two words in Jeremiah 17:9 that give us an insight into how our heart gets so dysfunctional the word deceitful can mean “showing footprints.” The words desperately sick can be better translated as incurably sick. Dr Jim Richards
So what is it really saying here?
The heart is covered with footprints, means it has being covered with wounds that have made it incurably sick.
Your life experiences, whether the pain is inflicted by others or the consequences of your own simple actions, these cover your heart with wounds “footprints”
When you filter Jeremiah 17:9 through the death burial and Resurrection, what happens? In Jesus, the heart is healed. In the old covenant, they didn’t have this resource. So what does that mean today? You have to persuade your heart to believe that Jesus has healed your heart. You can’t persuade your brain. You must persuade your heart.
The heart is the seat of our identity. When a person has a broken heart, they feel devastated. They have no sense of self-worth. Most likely, they don’t have a healthy sense of boundaries. They will seek to control or allow others to control them. Been there have the hat and the T-shirt.
When you have the footprints on your heart, that forms the filter through which you see your life. It is not the filter of the death burial and Resurrection.
The word broken in Hebrew שָׁבַר šâḇar; means to be shattered or broken to pieces.
So what do you do about this? It’s very clear in Ephesians, put off the old man, put on the new man and renew your mind.
When Jesus heals your broken heart, you have the power to make your own choices when your heart is whole, you can send away those thoughts, hurts, desires, powers, or anything else that seeks to keep you captive you should feel empowered to do so
I think for the most part when you put off the old man, you are forgiving. Most of the time, this means to send away. So you send it away you put off the old man put on the new man and renew your mind. Pretty simple process.
You have to persuade your heart to believe that Jesus has healed your heart. You can’t persuade your brain. You must persuade your heart.
Ephesians 4.23 Be renewed in your innermost mind. (Ponder the truth about you, as it is displayed in Christ; begin with the fact of your co-seatedness.) This will cause you to be completely re-programmed in the way you think about yourself!
Notice that Paul does not say, “Renew your minds!” This transformation happens in the spirit of your mind, awakened by truth on a much deeper level than a mere intellectual or academic consent. We often thought that we had to get information to drop from the head to the heart; but it is the other way around! Jesus says in John 7:37, “When you believe that I am what the Scriptures are all about, then you will discover that you are what I am all about, and rivers of living waters will gush out of your innermost being! The Mirror Translation
Matthew 6.6 