God Sees The Heart

1 samuel 16:7, “the lord does not look at the things man looks at. man looks at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart.”

God Sees The Heart by Jamie Turner

Our God measures man by His standard divine,
For He sees underneath every outward design.
He looks past possessions and costly attire;
He studies the heart, every thought and desire.

Our God does not judge by how tall we may stand,
Or how much we possess, or the rank we command.
His gaze goes far deeper to things that endure;
He honors the man (interjection: or woman) who keeps his heart pure.

For the eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro,
We have no secrets that our God does not know.
Our Father knows our thoughts, He understands every part.
Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart.

This is another one of my favorites.  I love songs that have strong lyrics, songs that could be a sermon in themselves.  Basically is what this song says is that we cannot impress God. (The good and most pure things we can do are filthy rags compared to God’s righteousness and holiness.) We can’t be pretty enough to go to heaven, rich enough, powerful enough, popular enough, nothing that we can do will ever make us worthy of heaven, only by accepting Jesus as our Saviour and getting His forgiveness on our sins can we go to heaven when we die.

This song also says that “We have no secrets that our God does not know”  God knows our thoughts, and he knows our motives.  This goes both ways, God knows when we do things to bring glory to Him.  He knows when we do something anonymously to be a blessing to someone else, but He also knows our secret sins, He knows if we do something out of pride or arrogance. 

I’ve learned to be transparent with God.  He knows it all anyway, don’t try to hide from God or hide things from God.  He knows about it anyway, so you might as well tell Him and get it over with, and keep a pure heart.  That’s tough sometimes.  People do and say things that upset or offend us and we have a hard time forgiving them, sometimes we become bitter.  We become prideful in our appearance or with how good we are at things.  People do things intentionally to hurt us and we become angry.  We think bad things about other people, and worse, sometimes we SAY bad things about other people.  As pure as we try to be, our hearts are wicked. 

I think that as a Christian, sometimes it’s really easy to “look the right way” “say the right things” and “do the right things” so that we look like the perfect person outwardly to people.  I’ve known many people over the years who outwardly look like they are the model Christian, and inwardly, they are bitter, angry, filled with hate, pride, unforgiveness, wicked thoughts, and the list goes on. 

Sin is sin in God’s eyes, there are no sins that are “better” or “worse” in His eyes.  When I tell a lie to someone, my sin is no better to God than a person who committed murder.  Sin is sin, but I firmly believe that inward sins are more dangerous to us as Christians than outward sins. Inward sins can be “hidden” for many MANY years, people can take ugly inward sins with them to their grave and no one will ever know about them.  Harboring inward sins can cause us to take our focus off of God, they can harbor for years, they can cause us not to serve God the way we should.   I constantly try to search my heart to make sure that I’m not holding grudges, not being unforgiving, not being unkind, not being prideful, and keeping my thoughts pure.  It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. 

I would much rather have a pure heart and a close relationship with God, only read my Bible 4 days a week and be criticized for not doing things that other people think the “perfect Christian” should do than be someone who falls into the trap of doing all the right “motions” and has bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness in their heart.

http://neverforsaked.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/god-sees-the-heart/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMJ_Ng-OeFY