The Mirror of the Heart...

The Mirror of the Heart...

Danielle Joyner Kelley

March 25, 2009

“But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7

“Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.” 1 Corinthians 4:5

“All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:2

“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8

“You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:2-3.

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve Him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.” 1 Chronicles 28:9

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1

WOW!! That is a lot of scripture. Every time I read my Bible and see scriptures like these I mark them and write “motives” out to the side. There is a lot more in there dealing with this issue. Apparently, it is important, and no matter if you are reading the Old or New Testament you are going to see it over and over.

All too often we work so hard to hide our real feelings from people. We play cool or “hard”, as some call it, so people won’t think we care. We go to great lengths to make sure that we look good and confident and have that “who cares” attitude. Or we do things just to impress people. We constantly worry about what others think about us and spend hours upon hours preparing to do things or not do things to make sure whatever we do has the right “effect” on someone.

Again, when we do these things we have forgotten about the One who can see through everything: God!! We don’t get our way and go screaming to Him about it, but we aren’t looking at the real reason “why” we asked for something in the first place. But He knows – trust me.

We can be so selfish. Imagine how your Creator feels watching us scramble around like ants investing so much time into trying to make other people believe what is not true about us? Who do you think created the very body you are dressing up to impress others? Him. Who do you think created that heart you are guarding so closely for fear of being hurt? Him. Who knows why you are doing something before you even realize you are going to do it? Him.

This idea of doing things to “fool” people is deeply engrained in our culture. Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time”. And the One you are definitely not fooling is God.

Jesus plainly addressed the issue of doing things to impress those around you as seen above from the Book of Matthew. If your goal is to impress man, then there is nothing for God to reward you for. You did something great and you look good to whomever you are trying to impress so why should He notice it? He shouldn’t because you never had Him in mind when you did it. “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1. Focus on the “to be seen by them” part of that scripture – that is the motive part.

Does that mean God doesn’t care and is just being mean? Absolutely not. He knows that when you do things to impress others you become selfish and self-absorbed. He knows that people will let you down. He knows if your motives are not pure then you have no true victory inside of you for doing something. He is saying this out of love to make you better.

Before you do something to have an “effect” ask yourself what you are doing it for? If your motive is not pure, meaning to make you truly better, then what good is there in doing it? Is the person who you are trying to impress in charge of your eternal destiny? Start trying to impress the only One who is: God!! People will let you down even if you go all out for them, He won’t and He knows that.

So many times people serve on juries to hear about the potential guilt of an accused individual. They hear all about the crime committed and in some circumstances look at the “motive”. When you are in a courtroom that is a big deal trust me. This is because it affects the person’s liberty – whether they will be free in society. However, when it comes to the biggest decisions in life – death, afterlife, birth, there is only a Jury of One. Would an attorney present their case to the bailiff or to the 6 -12 jurors in the jury box? If a jury is picked why would an attorney ignore them during the trial to present their case to the bailiff? They wouldn’t because they would be wasting their time.

When you work so hard to impress others and leave God out you are wasting your time too. There is no reward there. Stop caring so much what the world thinks of you. Your outward appearance, as seen in the scripture from 1 Samuel above, is not what matters to God. To be blunt, your outward appearance isn’t going to be so good when you are 6 feet under the ground and dead. And at that moment who you worked to impress – God or man – is going to count for a LOT.

You are working to please people because people put conditions on love. If they didn’t you wouldn’t have to do anything to make someone like you or love you. God doesn’t put conditions on His love for us. You already have it, no need to work for it. Don’t take that for granted. Your heart is transparent to Him; it is a mirror of who you really are. Shine that mirror on your heart and examine it – He is. If you don’t like what you see, then change it.

At least you will be working then for the only One who counts.