Is Your Well Dirty?

Have you ever drawn water out of a well using a bucket? If so, then you know that what is deep down in the well comes up in the bucket, both water and sediment, both clean and dirty. It is also true that what is deep within us also makes it way out. What is in our heart comes out in our actions and words, acting as our guide.   

While the heart might just be the most important organ in our body, in competition with our brain, it is likely also the most misunderstood. You’ve heard, probably even said, “Follow your heart.” There is some truth in that, doing what you love to do and charting your own course, not simply following some predetermined course laid out for you by someone else.

But a word of caution – the Bible gives us a very different viewpoint than just follow your warm and cuddly heart. In Jeremiah 17:9 we read “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable – who can understand it?” Deceitful literally means “perversion of the truth.” Ouch, that hurts. Sure sounds different than follow your heart.

Jesus, in rebuking the Pharisees (the moral police of their day) after they asked about eating with dirty hands, said that it isn’t what goes in your mouth that makes you dirty, but rather what comes out; and what comes out comes from the heart. (Read Matthew 15:1-20 for the entire interaction.) Again, sure doesn’t sound like follow your heart.

So, is there any hope?

Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, and the wisest man to ever live (1 Kings 3:11-15) says this in Proverbs 4:23- “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Literally, watch over your heart with vigilance. How? By being careful about what you do, what you say, who you hang out with, what you watch and read, on and on. But if your heart, and my heart, are in fact incurable, then how do we guard our hearts? It comes from the power of God’s Spirit living in you, and in me. It comes from a desperate cry to God for help!

David, after being confronted by the prophet Nathan about his adulteress affair with Bathsheba and conspiring to have her husband killed as a coverup, said this in Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.”

This should be our prayer every day, not just when we wake up, but all throughout the day as we get ready to face every situation that presents itself to us. You might be saying that you have the power to do it yourself. Well, let’s look at the Hebrew word used in this context for “create.”

Remember, your heart is incurable… incurable outside the power of God.

David knew that. “Create in me a pure (clean) heart.” The Hebrew word used here is bara’. It means to create, shape, or form. You say that makes sense; I can do that. I can bara’ my own clean heart. Not so fast.

This word bara’ is found throughout the Old Testament. In every single case, God is the subject; meaning He is the one doing the creating. We see that same word in Gen 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created (bara’) the heavens and earth. In v.27 we are told that “God created (bara’) man in his own image; he (bara’) him in the image of God; he (bara’) them male and female.” This kind of creating is a divine creating; meaning it is God who initiates a clean heart in us. He initiates. We then work on it.

So, today and tomorrow, and every day after that, will you make this your desperate plea – Oh God, help me guard my heart, and please, by only what only you can do, create (bara’) in me a clean heart, a pure heart, making my spirit right!

What is in your well?

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