Jeremiah 23:16 ...they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Proverbs 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool...
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Just a few days ago, I heard of two ministry leaders currently involved in unethical practices and immoral lifestyles. How can people who profess to know God and who even teach and preach God's principles of living continue in such lifestyles?
I believe the answer is in the above verses. They are trusting in their own hearts. They have lied to themselves over and over again until they believe their own lies, and now the lie is their truth. When a person begins to see Satan's lies as truth, any action can be justified as God's Word is distorted into a custom-made set of "if's, and's and but's."
Lord, help me as I approach your Word to come with a humble heart, allowing Your truth to uncover and uproot any seed of deception that I have allowed to germinate. Yours in the only heart I can trust implicitly.