My dear readers,

Deceit or Joy in Your Heart?

Proverbs 12:20: “Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellers of peace is joy.”

The heart is the seat of our emotions. The motive behind everything we do originates from the heart. God has given all His children the love of God to dwell permanently in their hearts. Romans 5:5: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Therefore, the warning from Proverbs 12:20a is that all believers cannot have a deceitful heart.

What is a deceitful heart?

A deceitful heart imagines evil. To “imagine” is to “craft”, i.e. to make something evil, like a hunter setting a snare to catch his prey. He ensures that the snare is set where his prey would frequent. He designs his snare to capture his prey. He knows the size, and likes and dislikes of his prey. Once he sets the snare, he carefully camouflages the whole area to make it look natural, as if there is no snare. Then, he waits patiently, knowing that his prey will eventually come to its haunt.

The sinner would do the same as the hunter. His prey is the Christians since the Bible is a spiritual Book. His hunting ground is the church where Christians are found. These Christians are trusting because they believe that their church is the safest place on earth for them to grow spiritually. It will never be a place of danger to hurt or harm their faith. Their armour of God is left at home when they attend church or any church activities. The hunter arrives as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He behaves like a believer. He is soft-spoken, gentle like a believer. He sings like a believer. He attends church punctually every Lord’s Day. Like a believer, he attends as many activities as the church offers so he can look more like a sheep. He is helpful in an undeniable manner so that all who see and know him will praise him as an extraordinary believer. He is generous, like a philanthropist on a mission to help, and he makes sure the people he helps know it. He ascends the ladder of leadership readily when offered but always with Saul-like humility and reluctance. Once he is securely entrenched in his place of influence and acceptability, he begins snaring his prey.

His tapestry of deception, which began from his deceitful heart and woven carefully through many years of planning, is coming to fruition.

The target is the faith and holy witness of the children of God. He knows he cannot snatch the salvation of God’s children out of God the Father and God the Son’s almighty hand. John 10:27-30: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and my Father are one.” But he can rob God’s children of their holy witness and spiritual well-being when they fall into his traps.

His traps are deceptive with the appearance of Christian kindness and goodness to win the hearts and minds of God’s children. The moment he succeeds, he will spew words of slander and half-truths. With their trust and loyalty in his pocket, God’s children will believe all they are told. They will forget to do due diligence, to listen to both sides of a quarrel or to clarify for a complete picture as commanded in Scripture because they believe the deceiver to be their friend or brethren in Christ. Deception is received sincerely in place of truth. Deceit is in the heart of the one who plans evil, deliberately or otherwise, because he is dead in trespasses and sin and is oblivious to his deception, thinking that it is normal.

Conversely, the heart of God’s child enjoys peace because he brings peace and joy to others through his counsels that reconcile differences and misunderstandings while upholding righteousness and truth according to the Scriptures. He is no ordinary counsellor. His counsel not only heals broken relationships between people but also between them and their Heavenly Father. The instrument of his counsel is the Word of God. He is not only a believer but a knowledgeable believer conversant in God's Word, knowing which portion of God’s Word to apply to all the different circumstances and people in life. In this way, he brings godly counsel as if God is present to give the counsel Himself because the words are based on God’s Word.

Every believer is a counsellor of peace. First, he counsels sinners by bringing the gospel of Christ to them. He ensures that he lives a life of holiness so that he is a consecrated holy vessel in the hands of the Holy Spirit to bring the sacred and powerful gospel of Christ to save sinners. Second, he counsels fellow believers when they do not know how to make crossroads-of-life decisions. It will bring peace to their hearts when they make a decision based on God's Word. He encourages and lifts the spirit of believers who are casualties of sin and temptations by helping them to repent and return to God. The peace they lost will return to their soul, having returned to their heavenly Father in sincere and true repentance. He is a peacemaker for Christ, his Lord. This is evidence of his salvation in Christ. A peacemaker is one of the beatitudes taught by Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

For God’s children, the joy they experience in their hearts, and seek after, is always spiritual. This joy is eternal. The wise counsel they give that brings peace glorifies their heavenly Father and exalts their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They know this is why they have been saved and left behind on earth to do! They are doing what they were created by God and saved by Christ to do! Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

With this heavenly joy in the hearts of God’s children, there is no room for deceit or sinful motives.

Two men are portrayed in Proverbs 12:20.
Externally, they may be the same with their visible Christian demeanour. But within their hearts, one is a sinner, and the other is a saint. The sinner is deceitful and brings destruction, spiritual decay, and death. He sows seeds of discord to bring a rift between brethren. He does the work of the devil, who is his father.

On the other hand, the saint counsels peace that heals broken relationships. He brings peace to sinners and their God. He brings peace between fellow believers and their heavenly Father in Christ, for the instrument of his peace is the Word of Life.