I ran across an interesting headline that instructed me, “Don’t Read This Article!” Of course, a headline like that dares defiance, doesn’t it? And that was the author’s point exactly. Joel Hilliker asks, “Are there ever times when you have thoughts you don’t like, or don’t understand—or, even worse, emotions you can’t explain? Do you ever feel disappointed because you keep doing things you’ve “promised” yourself you’d overcome? In your relationships, do you find yourself dealing with the same problems, making the same mistakes, time and time again?”

His answer, in a nutshell, to this conundrum? “The heart [that is, the seat of intellect—the human mind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

What say you? Is Hilliker right? Is this why so many folks run to self-help books and false prophets rather than walking in the Spirit and being a doer of the Word?