The other night I was speaking with a friend who works on the self-service check out counters at a local supermarket. They told me that every day they have to look out for people trying to cheat the system – people who have two of the same item in their basket but only scan and pay for one, or people who hide the odd bottle of whiskey under a coat in their trolley. These are not thieves and robbers you understand, but respectable middle-class residents of a prosperous community. It just goes to show that while most of us consider ourselves to be living ‘good’ lives, we may not be as morally upright as we pretend ourselves to be!
Not surprisingly the Bible has a lot to say on the subject of the moral condition of the human heart. Rather depressingly the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah makes this assessment – “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure”. Fortunately the Bible only ever points out problems in order to set up God’s solution to them and a while later through the prophet Ezekiel God declares, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.”
Great to know that when we are willing to acknowledge the depravity that lies within our hearts, God’s solution is right there waiting.
