Tag: heart

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John Devotionals

The one who sees our hearts

Jesus

While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.

Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man. (John 2:23-25)

[Peter] said, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” (John 21:17)

Jesus, you see my heart. You don’t need anyone to tell you what is there. Because you know me. And so I say with Peter, “You know that I love you.”

You know how imperfect my love is. You know my failings. You know my sin. But you also know I love you.

Still, it’s so easy to deceive myself. So peel off the layers of my own heart. Expose it. Show me the things you see so that you can heal it.

Lord Jesus, I want to be like you. Make me like you.

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Psalms Devotionals

What is my heart saying?

Psalms

What is my heart saying?

In good times?

In bad times?

In normal times?

What our heart says often shows to whom we belong.

It’s clear who David’s heart belonged to.

My heart says this about you:
“Seek his face.” (Psalm 27:8a)

And so David cried out to God,

Lord, I will seek your face. (8b)

How often does my heart cry out for God? How often does it cry out, “Bruce, seek God!”

How often is my heart’s desire for him? To behold his beauty. To seek him?

How often does my heart cry out for other things instead, without even a thought toward God?

What is my heart crying out?

Who does it belong to?

How about you? What is your heart saying?

Who does your heart belong to?

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1 Samuel Devotionals

Seeking the Lord’s favor?

1 Samuel

Here we see the first of Saul’s two major failures that led to his loss of the throne God had given him.

He was supposed to wait for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice before engaging the Philistines, but Samuel was late.

And with his troops panicking and deserting him, he “forced himself” to offer the sacrifice. After all, he needed to “seek the Lord’s favor.”

It’s interesting to see Samuel’s words in verses 13-14.

It was at this time that the LORD would have permanently established your reign over Israel, but now your reign will not endure. (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

One wonders if Samuel’s lateness was really a test to see if Saul would obey God even under extreme pressure, much in the same way that God tested Abraham in the offering of Isaac.

I don’t know. Maybe Samuel was just late and all he was saying was that the battle against the Philistines was supposed to solidify Saul’s reign in Israel.

But here’s the thing: Samuel said,

“The Lord has found a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him ruler over his people, because you have not done what the LORD commanded. (14)

Saul made the mistake that many people do: they think that God is most interested in religious rituals, religious works, or even works of ministry. They think these are the ways to gain God’s favor in their lives.

But what God is really after is our heart.

All our religious works, rituals, and ministry work mean nothing if God doesn’t have our hearts. And that’s a theme we see throughout the Bible.

Had God had Saul’s heart, Saul would have had a successful reign. What Saul showed in his actions was that God truly didn’t have his heart.

His foolish actions that day were the mere symptom of that much larger problem.

Were God to test your heart, what would he find? Would he find a heart that belongs to him?

God is not primarily interested in your ministry and how successful it is. Nor is he primarily interested in how much you tithe, or how often you read your Bible, or pray.

All these things are important. But the thing he wants most from you is your heart. And if he doesn’t have your heart, in his eyes, he has nothing.

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James

How true faith expresses itself (Part 5)

James

I suppose I could have just titled this blog, “The tongue,” or some other such title.

But I wanted to remind myself that this is really part of a longer argument that James is making. That faith expresses itself in love, in purity, and in our speech.

This passage is kind of a revisitation of chapter 1 verse 26 where James wrote,

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

We pointed out when we first looked at this that the reason for this is that our tongue shows the true state of our heart.

So many times people will say apologize for something they said by saying, “Sorry about that. It just kind of popped out.”

But the question is why? Why did it pop out? It popped out because it was there in your heart. It didn’t just pop out of nowhere. It resided in your heart, and when the time was ripe, it burst out.

And the thing is, because we all have sin in our hearts, there are any number of things there ready to pop out when we least expect it.

That’s why James tells us,

We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. (James 3:2)

Words are much quicker to come out of our mouths then our body is to act on any thought we may have.

And so if our heart ever comes to the point of maturity and completion that nothing bad ever pops out, it would be safe to say that we most likely would never do anything wrong.

But of course, as long as we are on this earth, there will always be sin in our hearts. And that’s why James says,

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. (7)

And the thing is, what we say can shape our lives as well as the shape of others. Just as a bit can turn a horse completely around, and a rudder can do the same to a ship, so the tongue can completely turn the life of a person for good or bad.

Unfortunately, too often it turns a person’s life for the worse. James compares it to a spark that can bring down an entire forest.

What you say can destroy your whole life, or the life of another. And because of that, James says that such a tongue is set on fire by hell itself.

Jobs are lost because of our words. Marriages die because of our words. Children are crushed because of our words. Friendships are broken by our words.

And yet so often we speak them so carelessly. Is it no wonder that James calls them a deadly poison? (8)

James says,

With the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.

Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. (9-10)

Put another way, how can we say we love God when we curse people who are made in his image?

He concludes,

Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. (11-12)

The truth is, while these things should not be, they do happen when it comes to our words because of what’s in our hearts. We have both fresh water and salt water there.

So if you wonder why you struggle so much with your tongue, consider the source of your words?

What is in your heart? What bitterness, anger, or other ugliness is there? Because until you let Jesus deal with what’s there, you will never be able to control your tongue.

So let us pray as David did.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

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Romans

A true circumcision

Romans

One of the main problems the Jews had in Paul’s time was that they forgot that God wasn’t so interested in outward appearances as he was in their hearts.

In particular, they thought it was circumcision that made them right before God, all the while ignoring the sin that was in their hearts.

God had made that problem clear through the Old Testament prophets. In Jeremiah, he said,

The days are coming…when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh — Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places.

For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. (Jeremiah 9:25-26)

In other words, God wasn’t so interested in people cutting off parts of their body. He was interested in having their hearts. And if he didn’t have their hearts, circumcision meant nothing to him.

And so Paul said,

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.

If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?

The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2:25-29)

Again, Paul is speaking mostly hypothetically.

He’s saying that if someone were able to keep the law perfectly, even though he were not circumcised, God would accept them.

On the other hand, if a circumcised person doesn’t keep the law, God will condemn them as a lawbreaker. And for that matter, the law-keeping uncircumcised person could do the same.

Of course, no one, circumcised or not, has ever been able to keep the law perfectly.

So Paul tells them, “You’re not a Jew, that is, you are not truly God’s chosen people if you are simply circumcised, because circumcision isn’t merely physical. It’s a matter of the heart.

Only if your heart is circumcised by the Spirit of God are you truly accepted by God and can be called his people.”

What does it mean to have a circumcised heart? Paul tells us in Colossians 2:11.

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ. (Colossians 2:11)

In other words, when we came to Christ, he cut off the chains that bound us to the sinful nature.

Prior to that, we were pulled around by that nature and acted in accordance with it. But now, that nature has been circumcised and we belong to God.

And having been set free from that sinful nature, we are free to follow after God and have been given the power to live a righteous life.

But again, that circumcision is not done by our own efforts, but by giving our hearts to Christ, by coming to him in faith, and saying, “Lord Jesus I need you. I can’t save myself. Please save me.

I’m putting my trust in you and your work for me in the cross. Now forgive my sins and make me yours.”

And when you do, that’s when you become God’s child.

That’s when you are truly right before God.

How about you? Have you given your heart to God? Is your heart circumcised before him?

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Acts

The seriousness of sin

Acts

This is perhaps the most shocking story in the book of Acts. It also shows us the seriousness of sin.

Two people in the church, Ananias and Sapphira, had seen Barnabas generously sell some of his land to help the poor.

Perhaps after seeing the praise Barnabas had received from the others, they too wanted to show off their generosity. The problem? Their generosity was purely superficial.

Oh, they sold their land. But instead of giving all of the proceeds from the sale, they kept some of it for themselves.

That in itself wasn’t so bad. As Peter later told them, it was up to them how much they wanted to give. If they had only wanted to give 50%, that would have been fine. If they had only wanted to give 10%, that too would have been fine.

The apostle Paul would later write,

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

In short, God is not so interested in how much of our money he has. (Actually, as I pointed out yesterday, all of it really belongs to him).

God is much more interested in how much of our heart he has.

I don’t know how much of Ananias’ and Sapphira’s heart he had, but it obviously wasn’t 100%. They were more interested in money, and the pride of life. Of being admired by others.

And because of this, they lied. Not just to Peter. Not just to the church. But to God himself.

It’s also possible that it wasn’t any mere lie. It’s possible that they had even sworn to dedicate the proceeds of the land to the Lord, according to the law of Moses. (Leviticus 27:28).

And by keeping back some of the money they had promised to the Lord, they broke their oath.

This was so serious in the eyes of God, that Ananias and Sapphira paid for it with their lives.

That may seem harsh. And it was. But I think we learn one very important thing from this: Sin is a serious thing to God, no matter how little it may seem to us.

Perhaps Ananias and Sapphira thought, “It’s only a little lie. Who could it hurt?”

But though the actual sins we commit may seem small, they show the state of our hearts. Ananias’ and Sapphira’s sin showed the jealousy, greed, pride, and hypocrisy that was in theirs.

And while telling a little lie may seem trivial to us, the issues that lie behind them are very serious. So serious, that Jesus had to die on a cross to pay the price for it.

Are there sins in your life that you brush off as trivial? They are not trivial in the eyes of God. So search your heart.

What do the sins you commit show about the state of your heart?

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Luke Luke 21 Mark Mark 12

What God is looking for

The gospels

After the blistering criticism Jesus gave the Pharisees, he settled back, and quietly started to watch the people walking past the place where offerings were put.

A number of rich people walked past, and with great ceremony dumped in large amounts of money. And perhaps as they did, Jesus’ face twisted in consternation.

Person after person walked by, giving their offerings, but somehow, I imagine Jesus’ face only grew darker.

And then a poor widow walked by.

Unlike many of those who had dropped in their offerings, this woman only dropped in two coins. There was no pride in it. No seeking of attention. I imagine there was only a heart filled with love and gratefulness toward God.

At this, Jesus’ face lit up. And he quickly pointed her out to the disciples, telling them,

I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. (Mark 12:43)

The disciples must have thought Jesus was out of his mind. They probably said, “Jesus, what are you talking about? You can barely buy anything with what that woman gave!”

But Jesus replied,

They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on. (Mark 12:44)

I don’t think it’s coincidence that Jesus pointed this woman out after all he had said about the Pharisees and teachers of the law. He had just scathed them for all their hypocrisy, because all of their righteousness was merely for show.

And so when he finally found the kind of person that God was really looking for, he said to his disciples, “This is what I’m talking about. This is the kind of person God is looking for.”

What kind of person was that? A person whose heart truly belonged to God.

A heart that didn’t worry about what others thought about her. A heart that didn’t cling to what was hers. But a heart that said, “Here I am. Here’s what I have. I give it to you.”

How about you? Is that the kind of heart you have?

Can Jesus point to you and say, “Here is a person whose heart is mine?”

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Luke Luke 11

What’s in the heart

Luke

Here in Luke 11:37-44, Jesus gives a blistering criticism of the Pharisees. And basically what it came down to was what was in their hearts.

The Pharisees looked so good on the outside. They were so careful to keep the law. But inside, they were full of hypocrisy.

One thing Jesus pointed to was the greed that stained their hearts. Oh, they gave their tithes to God, down to the herbs they grew in their gardens.

But when they saw a person in need, they walked by without a second glance. Their love for money far outweighed their love for those around them.

They also were so quick to pass judgment without really looking at the situation through God’s eyes.

One example was their criticism of Jesus’ healings on the Sabbath and the unjust way they not only treated Jesus, but those he healed (John 9).

In so doing, they forgot the words of Micah who said,

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:6-8)

Jesus called them on all of this.

But he also pointed out the stain of pride in their hearts. That the reason they desired these positions of leadership was not to serve the people, but to be seen as important.

And because of these things, he called them unmarked graves which men walk over without knowing.

Why was that so bad? Because graves were unclean by Jewish law. To touch them was to make yourself unclean. (Numbers 19:16)

So Jesus was saying to these Pharisees, “Not only are you unclean, but you make everyone you come into contact with unclean too.

Worse, these people don’t even know that they’ve been made unclean because they think you’re righteous.”

Harsh?

Yes. But the truth often is. And the thing is, these people needed to know that while they were fooling others, they certainly weren’t fooling God, and they were headed for disaster unless they repented.

And so are we if we are merely “clean” on the outside but filthy on the inside.

It’s not enough to do religious things. To go to church. To tithe to the church.

These things are not enough when all the while, you’re filled with pride and greed, lacking the love of God in your heart. And not just lacking love for God, but lacking God’s love for those around you.

God sees beyond the exterior into your heart. And he is looking for people after his own heart.

What’s in yours?

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Mark Mark 7 Matthew Matthew 15

What is truly unclean

The gospels

I think a lot of times, when people look at the laws of Moses, they wonder about why the Jews had all these laws about what is clean and unclean.

For the most part, from a practical standpoint, they seemed to be for health and sanitary reasons.

But I think there was something beyond that which God wanted to make clear to the people: There are things that make you unclean.

And by fixing this idea of clean and unclean in their minds from the physical aspect, he was drawing a picture for them of what it meant to be clean and unclean from a spiritual aspect.

He was impressing the idea to them that they needed to be a people that were completely pure. Not just in body, but in spirit.

Unfortunately, the Jews put so much focus on the physical aspect of the law, that they missed the true point God was trying to get across to them.

And so when Jesus told the people that what goes into the mouth doesn’t make people unclean, it’s what comes out of the mouth that does, his disciples got confused.

All their lives, they had been told, “Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. If you do, you’ll become unclean.”

And so basically they asked Jesus, “What do you mean? We always thought that certain foods would make us unclean.”

Jesus responded,

Are you so dull? Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body…

What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ (Mark 7:18-23)

I think this passage is fairly self-explanatory, and doesn’t need any further commentary as to what Jesus meant.

The question then becomes, how about you? What is in your heart? Is it love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control? Then these things will flow out of your mouth and out of your life.

But if it’s evil thoughts, sexual immorality, and all the rest, those things too will flow out of your mouth and your life. These are the things that make you pure or impure.

As you examine your life today, what’s coming out of your mouth? What’s coming out of your life?

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Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Fulfilling the law

Matthew

I think it’s significant that Jesus probably said these things after the controversies with the Pharisees over the Sabbath had begun (although you wouldn’t guess this by looking at the book of Matthew alone).

Jesus had probably already done multiple healings on the Sabbath earning the criticism of the Pharisees.

But Jesus makes it clear here that,

I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

How did Jesus fulfill the law and the prophets? Primarily in three ways.

First, he fulfilled the prophesies of the Messiah to come.

Second, he was the only man to ever perfectly obey the law. Because of that, he was able to take the punishment for our sin on the cross.

As Paul wrote,

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

Third, he fulfilled in his death all the sacrifices that God had required of the Jews.

As the writer of Hebrews points out, while God required them, they in themselves could not cleanse us from our sins. What they did do was paint a picture of what Jesus would do for us on the cross.

Now in Jesus, all our sins have been cleansed, and so these sacrifices are no longer required. They are, as Jesus puts it, accomplished in him. (Hebrews 10:1-18)

But while some things in the law were accomplished in Jesus Christ, as was our justification before God, nevertheless, the law still points to the holiness of God and what kind of people God desires us to be.

And so each day, we are to strive to be holy as he is holy. Not in order to earn our salvation, but because now the Holy Spirit lives inside us to help us live it.

Before we were powerless to do what God commanded. But now God himself dwells in us and gives us the power to become the people he originally designed us to be.

And Jesus warns us,

I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

That probably stunned the people who heard it because the Pharisees and teachers of the law were considered the strongest preservers of God’s law. They had made rule upon rule in order to make sure they kept God’s law.

But righteousness goes far beyond keeping the letter of the law. Righteousness is a thing of the heart. And if your heart is not right before God, nothing you do is right before Him.

Three points that Jesus would lambast the Pharisees and teachers of the law for were lack of justice, mercy, and faithfulness in their lives. (Matthew 23:23)

We’ll see more of what he means by that as we continue through his sermon.

For now, the question is, how is your heart? You may be doing all the right things, but is your heart right before God? What would he say about your heart today?