Hank Williams, the renowned country music singer, wrote and performed the classic tune Your Cheatin’ Heart. One verse goes:

Your cheatin’ heart will pine someday
And crave the love you threw away
The time will come when you’ll be blue
Your cheatin’ heart will tell on you

The prophet Jeremiah expressed a similar sentiment: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Then Jeremiah shared this declaration from God: I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.

I’m not sure if Jeremiah had a girlfriend in mind when he wrote about the treachery of the human heart, but we all recognize the sentiment. Our hearts betray us. Purity eludes us. Realizing the Lord ferrets around in the depths of my heart only makes matters worse. As old Hank crooned, your cheatin’ heart will tell on you.

Thankfully, the one who searches is also the one who heals. Jeremiah begged, Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

There’s no hiding my cheatin’ heart. But if I turn in humility and need, the Lord will return the love I threw away.

Jeremiah 17 in Through the Bible in 2024