“God knows my heart”. How many times have we heard someone say this or said it ourselves? Although we usually say this phrase to express our true desire to serve God, it actually does more to show our sinful nature.

The Bible has a lot to say when it comes to our hearts and it’s not all good. Scripture tells us our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9 and Psalm 16:25) and can even condemn us (1 John 3:20). God knowing our hearts does us no good because our hearts are the very reason we sin (James 1:13-15).

Please don’t be discouraged because there is hope. More than we need to understand that God knows our hearts, we need to know His. We need to know that despite the sinful nature of our hearts and the sin that it produces God sent His Son to die so that we might live. We need to know that God loves us even while our hearts have lured us away from Him.

Read the rest of this article that originally appeared on the Praying Women here.