“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” (Proverbs 14:12) “People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives.” (Proverbs 16:2)

The Bible is a mirror. It reveals to us what is inside of us. Satan desires to deceive us by the mirage of what we see with our natural eyes, hear with our ears, or better yet us thinking that we know what is right in our own minds. But the Spirit of God desires for us to inspect people’s fruit whether it’s ours or others according to Scripture. (You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. Matthew 7:16-18)

What is inside of you? Well, a heart that is naturally wicked. Jeremiah 17:9-10 reminds us “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Trusting our hearts is just another way of trusting in man, in ourselves, our feelings, or our thoughts. Our old selves, what I like to call my “pre-Jesus” life is one that is worldly, self-centered, full of malice, strife, hatred, and envy. We are commanded to avoid, get rid of these things that Paul described in Galatians chapter 5 verses 19 to 21. (“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”)

So, the good news for us today is that we need a Savior. Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23-25, ” For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.” As a result of this sacrifice, now that I am His, a born-again believer in Jesus, through the sanctification process, I have been given a new heart and a new mind according to 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 and Romans 12 and 2. (“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” 2 Corinthians 5:17; “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” Romans 12:2)

Because of the teachings of Jesus, we are not compelled to conform to the ways of this wicked world. We are not obligated to adopt their thoughts or behaviors. With us acknowledging Jesus as Lord, you and I have access to the Holy Spirit-he is the master teacher as my grandmoma would always tell me; He is the one who will lead you to all truth. (“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” John 14:26; “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” John 16:13)

As followers of Jesus, we can truly understand what is inside us only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Spirit not only testifies about Jesus but also reveals the true state of our hearts.