When it comes to describing the human heart, the Bible says that our old nature heart has a major problem, for we read in (Jeremiah 17:9): “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” And because of the fall, man’s heart is so deceitful and wicked that it can’t even seek after God on its own, nor does it want to. Is it any wonder that since we suppress the truth about God that the unregenerate man lives continually in a state of restlessness.
The great 17th century mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, stated man’s hopeless condition without God well when he said: “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”1 And as far as finding rest for our weary hearts, Charles Colson, said it best: “Knowing that we are fulfilling God’s purpose is the only thing that gives rest to the restless human heart.”2
Even as Christians our hearts can be restless if we are not in tune with Christ. The Christian life is a grand adventure and as we stay close to Jesus we will always be in a position to enjoy life to the fullest. The reason why the non-Christian is so often restless is because he doesn’t anchor himself to the only One who can give lasting meaning to life – Jesus Christ! You see we are all wired to have a spiritual connection to God. Without a genuine relationship with Jesus this most fundamental longing of the human heart will never be met and as a result restlessness will always prevail.
Look at it this way, the non-Christian places his trust in his very deceitful heart, hoping to find peace, joy, and meaning through it. Instead of placing no confidence in this deeply wicked vessel, he deceives himself thinking he can find the peace and joy he so much wants through it. My friends, without the spiritual surgery that Christ performs at salvation, when He gives us a new heart, we are all hopelessly destined to a life of total restlessness. The unregenerate man, with his old and deceitful heart, try as he might, can never find true peace and joy, which is only available through Christ and the new heart He so graciously gives us.
Humanity will always have a restless heart because it doesn’t have the capability to connect with its Maker. Only a new transformed heart, that a believer in Christ gets at salvation, can finally bring rest to a weary soul. And I for one am so grateful that one day Jesus didn’t just repair my sinful heart but He replaced it with a brand new Spirit-filled heart. And with this new heart I can safely rest in the knowledge that I am a child of God!
1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY BLAISE PASCAL (of 727) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
2 TOP 25 QUOTES BY CHARLES COLSON (of 92) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)