What actually is the heart of man?

According to Bible Hub, (What does “desperately wicked heart” mean in Jeremiah 17:9?/accessed2/28/2026),

 “the underlying Hebrew word for “heart” (לֵב, lev) goes beyond merely referencing emotions. It carries the idea of one’s entire inner being-thoughts, will, emotions, and inclinations. It is the command center of a person’s life, encompassing all that constitutes character and motivation.”

I would go as far as to say, because I believe the Bible backs this… that the heart of man, is actually what we call our soul today: the mind, the will, the emotions, the belief system, the personality, the behavioral tendencies, all lie within the soul.

The heart of man is the soil that Jesus talked about in the Parable of the Sower.

The heart of man is like the state of the ground that seeds attempt to fall on to produce.

If it is hard, rocky, grown up with weeds, nothing will grow well there.

The Heart of the Believer:

The heart of the believer in Jesus Christ should be good ground as we grow into the fullness of Jesus Christ, into spiritual maturity. It should be tilled up, cleared out, and ripe to receive and produce new seeds for new growth, new fruit, new understanding, on and on and up and up, more and more each year.

In my experience, this was not the case for me.

I did not produce much fruit in my “salvation” years. I may have had a form that looked godly, but I cannot say it was because of God’s love for me in me growing that form…

Most often, like mine, the believers’ hearts are so full of other stuff, there’s no room for the word to grow.

What other stuff?

Beliefs.

What do you believe about life, about God, about existence? Why are you here? Who made you? Who made the world, and why do you believe that? Some of us have never even thought about these questions.

Ideas.

Your dreams, visions, ambitions, life goals and plans. Where did they come from? Were they birthed in prayer? In time spent with Jesus?

Things…people, and places we love and need and desire.

Sometimes certain worldviews…

Sometimes our ideals, identities, and just our worldly, fleshy stuff we like and want…

Can I ask you, friend…What is growing in the garden of your heart?

Is the garden of your heart bearing fruit of a life lived for Jesus?

Does it grow peace in it?

Is it harvesting love?

Is it blooming patience, kindness, gentleness?

Is it producing joy?

What about robust goodness, or self-control?

What are others having the opportunity to taste and see from your life’s fruits?

Are others reaping kindness from you?

Love?

Are they reaping anger?

Are they reaping impatient unfriendliness, frustration?

Are they reaping rage?

Are they reaping hatred, bitterness, or jealousy?

Out of the heart flows all issues in life, the Bible tells us.

If you’ve got these kinds of problems listed above, it’s because there is a full-grown rooted plant producing this in your heart right now.

Not only is there this terrible root producing rotten fruit, but it is taking up space, capacity and nutrients in the garden of your heart that God wants to grow something beautiful from Him, for other to taste, instead.

As a believer, we need to take inventory.

We can judge our own heart’s ground, our own hearts by what is producing out of our mouths, to and about others around us.

It’s not hard to see, if you’ll ask the Lord to search you.

“Search me God, know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and LEAD ME in the everlasting way. Reveal things hiding in the dark corners of my heart. Reveal un-surrendered areas, dethrone my idols, show me what I cannot see…”

The Heart of the Unbeliever:

In the deepest form of love possible, I have to say that your natural heart, unbeliever, is not inherently good.

One of the biggest lies the devil has you believing right now is that you are a “good person.”

You are not.

I am not.

Anything good that comes from me is only because of the Holy Spirit of God living within me, producing life.

It was because of ONE MAN’s SIN that we are born into a sin state—spirit, soul and body—born separated from God.

We ALL are born separated from God, in desperate need of the cross of Jesus Christ and His saving grace to reunite us to God Almighty, the One True God.

Nothing else will save you from eternal separation from God, except you accepting Jesus Christ as the only One who can make you right with God, by making Him the Lord of your life.

The only GOOD in the world, comes from GOD.

Everything else you may believe contrary is pure deception.

You don’t believe the bible because the devil has convinced you it’s not real—God would not do that, design you for that, create you to deny Him… it’s not who He is.

The devil has been given a place in your life and it’s time to evict him.

The same devil you watch movies about and think is not real.

He’s real.

And he’s got you in the palm of his hand not to help you, but to destroy you. Just like he does to people in those movies.

To keep the message of Jesus Christ from penetrating your soul and you figuring it all out for real—that this life, devoted to CHRIST, is the one thing you’ve been searching your entire life for…

Just ask God and watch and see what happens.

Ask God to show Himself to you.

I tell you the hard truth because I love you too much not to…

The heart of man it is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

But if you choose to give your life to Jesus, and receive His final payment for all you ever did wrong, for nothing you ever did right, He will give you a new heart…”and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.””

Behold Him.

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1 Samuel 16:7: “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Matthew 15:18-19: “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”

Ezekiel 36:26: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me

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