Grasp the Gospel — Bible Comprehension Quizzes

Jeremiah 17 Devotional

Healing for a Deceitful Heart

“Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.”Jeremiah 17:14 (BSB)

God draws two pictures. The one who trusts in human strength and turns his heart from the LORD is like a desert shrub in salty ground (17:5-6). The one who trusts in the LORD is like a tree planted by water, its roots reaching the stream, unafraid in a year of drought and still bearing fruit (17:7-8). The difference is not the weather. Both face heat. The difference is what the roots are drawing from.

But who can trust rightly? The human heart is more deceptive than anything else, and only the LORD who searches it truly knows it (17:9-10). Yet that is not a dead end. Jeremiah asks God to heal him and save him, confident that what God heals is truly healed (17:14). The cure the heart cannot give itself, God gives. You do not have to read your own heart perfectly. You can bring it to the one who knows it fully and ask him to heal it.

To think about: What would it look like today to send your roots toward the LORD, bringing him a heart you cannot fully understand yourself?

About Jeremiah 17: Trust in the LORD and the Deceitful Heart

Judah's sin is deeply engraved in its heart and worship. The LORD contrasts the barren life of one who relies on people with the fruitful life of one who relies on Him and declares the human heart incurably deceitful yet fully known to Him. Jeremiah pleads for rescue, and the LORD calls Jerusalem to honor the Sabbath.

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