March 20th, 2021: Know Our Hearts
I got a phone call from a friend who informed me that her brother died after getting beat up in an alley. Doctors could not stop the bleeding in his brain. He had a challenging life, and not much had gone well for him. However, his siblings will miss him as they deal with their grief and sorrow.
Sometimes it is easy to look down on the sins of others and think how good or lucky we are for not having to be in their positions. We might want to consider our own sinful nature before entertaining such thoughts.
So as I listened to his sister and prayed for him, I have to trust that God knew who he was and what was going in his mind during the years he had on earth. Only God knows the secret of our human hearts. Here it what written in 1 Samuel 16: 7:
"But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
So our status in this world doesn't mean much when it comes to how God sees us. Our worldly appearance seems to be futile. Yet, how much have we invested our lives in them? God will dissect our hearts to gut out what is evil.
Knowing our hearts is a solemn business. We need to be honest about the condition of our hearts to gain the freedom to embrace the Heart of God. We move from solemness to peacefulness.