Seven Things God Finds Abominable: #4 — An Heart that Deviseth Wicked Imaginations
Welcome back, to our ongoing series “Seven Things God Finds Abominable.” If you’re joining us for the first time, we’ve already walked through three: A Proud Look, A Lying Tongue, and Hands That Shed Innocent Blood. Each one reveals a deeper layer of what God finds abominable: pride in the eyes, deceit on the lips, and violence in the hands.
Now this abomination exposes the worker of sin: the human heart. Before any hand strikes or tongue speaks, the heart conceives. Every sin begins as a thought, every act of evil as an imagination unrestrained. The outward deeds of men are but the fruit of the heart.
“An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations.” Proverbs 6:18
The world tells us to “follow your heart,” but Scripture warns us to guard it. Jeremiah 17:9 says:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
We often think of sin as something we fall into, but most sins are things we plan. The heart, untamed by grace, becomes an inventor of evil. It will craft scenarios, justify rebellion, and imagine pleasure without consequence.
Jesus said in Mark 7:21–23:
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
The phrase “deviseth wicked imaginations” implies deliberate construction. It speaks of the blueprints of wrongdoing that are drawn up in the secret chambers of the heart. The heart becomes a workshop where pride furnishes the tools, envy provides the energy, and self-will lays the foundation.
David described this kind of heart in Psalm 36:4:
“He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.”
Even in rest, the wicked heart works. God despises this because it reveals a will not merely tempted by evil but busy designing it.
Men judge actions but God judges motives. Proverbs 21:2 says:
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.”
A person may outwardly appear righteous, yet inwardly scheme for self-exaltation or revenge. God sees beyond this performance. He weighs the heart, not the habit. He reads the thoughts behind the smile and the motives behind the ministry.
Imagination itself is not evil, it is a gift from God. The danger lies in what we allow it to dwell upon. The same heart that can devise evil can also conceive beauty, compassion, and faith when surrendered to God.
David prayed in Psalm 139:23–24:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
The cure for wicked imagination is not suppression but surrender. A sanctified imagination dreams of holiness, mercy, and delights in truth. The Spirit of God does not silence thought but transforms it.
Philippians 4:8 gives the blueprint for holy thinking:
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
When the heart is yielded to Christ, the same creative power that once plotted rebellion can be redeemed to envision righteousness, compassion, and glory to God.
A heart that devises wicked imaginations is a heart ungoverned by the Spirit. Yet even such a heart is not beyond His reach. God can take the very mind that once schemed for sin and renew it for holiness. Romans 12:2 declares:
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
The thoughts we feed become the lives we live. If we dwell on darkness, darkness will dwell in us. Yet if we set our minds on things above, the light of Christ will fill even the hidden corners of the heart.