Getting to the heart of the matter.
Our heart is our identity to God. To Him it reveals everything about us. Many thoughts go through our head but our heart is the key to how God views our faith and attitude towards him. So don't you think it is time to get to the heart of the matter?
The word “heart” appears in the NIV Bible 743 times. So it would seem to be important to God.
In Genesis 6 it is how he recognizes the wickedness and evil of man…
Gen 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
This Wickedness and evil has made our hearts disobedient to God…
Eph 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
In Acts we see that God knows the heart, and purifies it by our faith…
Acts 15:8-9 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
But for God to see our hearts filled with the spirit we have to believe in the word of truth.
Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
Once we choose to receive the spirit we become known and become members of the house of God.
Eph 2: 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,
But if we remain in our wicked ways, and do not prepare our selves God will not know our hearts, because they are not prepared, and we will be left on the outside.
Mathew 26:10-12 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' 12 "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
Do not think like the unprepared virgins, that you can only give part of your life to God, and that be enough for Him to know your heart. Do not say, I will do these things here which are pleasing to God, and leave other things unattended. God knows the heart and only he knows when a believer has fully committed every aspect of his life to Christ.
You must let God see your heart, by shining your light, and then God will know you as one of His own. That light is lit by the Oil and Fire of the Holy Spirit.
God knows the secrets of our hearts.
Psalm 44: 20- 21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Christ’s light is not meant to shine on us, it is meant to shine from with in us. If the Spirit is indwelling in our heart and soul, then we will let that light out. When we let that light out it is when God knows us for who we are, His Child.
Mathew 5: 14-16 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
If we live as light we do what is pleasing to God, and will expose everything to God.
Eph 5: 8-13 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
God wants us to know he did not intend for us to live in this imperfect world. And we groan and long for the salvation of Christ so that we can live with him again as we were suppose to in the Garden of Eden. If we are not careful, if we do not expose our whole heart to God, and if we let our heart be affected by this world, God will not know us for who we. We will be separate form God.
Eph 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
