Written in Living Water

9           The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
            10          “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
                        to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
            11          Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
so is he who gets riches but not by justice;
                        in the midst of his days they will leave him,
and at his end he will be a fool.
            12          A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
            13          O Lord, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
                        those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
Jeremiah 17:9-13
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Written in Living Water
The heart is not a trustworthy guide. Jeremiah says it is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. That cuts against everything our world teaches, which tells us to “follow your heart.” But fallen hearts do not lead to life; they lead us away from the Lord, the fountain of living water. Judah’s sin was engraved deeply, like writing cut into stone. So it is with us. Sin is not a surface problem but a deep corruption we cannot heal ourselves. Left to ourselves, we are like a shrub in the desert, dry, empty, and dying. Yet the Lord does not leave sinners to perish. Christ took our deceitful hearts and nailed their guilt to His cross. There He became our righteousness. In Baptism, He writes our names not in dust, but in the book of life through His living water of mercy.