Deceit Above All: Society’s Evil and the Saviour’s Grace

The human heart is a mystery, a wellspring of both beauty and brokenness. Scripture lays bare its darker truth in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Centuries later, Jesus echoes this in Mark 7:21-23, declaring, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery… All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” These ancient words ring painfully true today as we witness the devaluation of human life across society.

Look around—wars rage, reducing cities to rubble and lives to statistics. Murders stain our streets, fueled by anger, greed, or cold indifference. Famine creeps silently, starving the vulnerable while the world turns a blind eye. These are not mere external tragedies; they are symptoms of an internal malady. The evil we see—violence, apathy, destruction—flows from the human heart, twisted by sin and manipulated by the enemy, Satan himself.

Nowhere is this assault more evident than against children, the fragile hope of the next generation. They face exploitation, abuse, and the chaos of a world that seems to have forgotten their worth. Scripture warns us of a spiritual adversary who “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan targets the innocent, aiming to snuff out their light before it can shine. This is no accident; it’s a calculated strike against God’s creation, born from the wickedness within.

Society mirrors this heart condition. When human lives lose value—whether in the womb, on battlefields, or in forgotten slums—it reveals a collective heart in desperate need of surgery. No policy, philosophy, or human effort can mend it. Only Jesus, the Great Physician, can cut away the deceit and evil lodged within. He alone transforms sinners into saints, replacing stone-cold hearts with ones that beat for righteousness (Ezekiel 36:26). The cross stands as proof: through His sacrifice, redemption is possible, even for the vilest offender.

History and headlines scream the problem, but Christ whispers the solution. He doesn’t just expose the heart’s deceit; He heals it. Where evil festers, He plants grace. Where hatred reigns, He sows love. The transformation of a single heart can ripple outward, countering the tide of societal decay. But it starts with surrender—acknowledging our own wickedness and crying out for His mercy.

So today, let’s pray. Pray for the hurting souls ensnared by evil, for the broken hearts crushed by loss, and for lives teetering on despair. Pray for the children, that they might be shielded from the enemy’s schemes. Above all, pray for transformation—that Jesus, our Saviour, would perform His holy surgery on us all, turning sinners into saints and darkness into light. Only then can we hope to see a world where human life is cherished, not discarded.