Christ Jesus shared a parable about why seeds planted by a farmer don’t always take root and grow (see Luke 8:5–15). The story metaphorically illustrates modes of thought that stand in the way of healing and those that support and promote it. One requirement for healing that Jesus identified in the parable was an honest heart, which he defined as more than just telling the truth. He said those who are honest and good-hearted “listen to God’s words and cling to them and steadily spread them to others who also soon believe” (Luke 8:15, The Living Bible).

We all yearn to live up to the standard that Jesus exemplified and taught, and this parable provides valuable insight: Any seeker of Truth who possesses the spiritual quality of an honest heart naturally listens for divine guidance and follows it, applying it tenaciously to every aspect of daily life. And the reward for this tenacity is healing.

One definition of honest is “free from . . . deception” (merriam-webster.com). Self-deception is especially thorny because it affects every aspect of our experience. Self-deception argues that life is merely material. It sees selfhood as determined and limited by the corporeal senses, by physical attributes or strands of DNA, when in fact, God’s offspring­ (all of us) are made in the likeness of God, Spirit—made to express the freedom of Spirit, the perfect beauty of divine Soul, the limitless nature of divine Life. As we come to see that our true selfhood is not mortal but immortal, not material but spiritual—that our true nature as God’s spiritual reflection is inseparable from infinite Love and divine Mind and Life—we naturally enthrone God as our sole truth-giver, as the only seat of our real identity.