Do You Know Your Heart As Well As God Knows It?

“God knows my heart…” Ever heard someone say that to you? Or have you yourself used this statement—usually in response to a spiritual discussion? I mean let’s be honest, the context in which that statement is usually made is to be used as a crutch for something we biblically disagree with, spiritually uncomfortable with, or just want to walk away from a biblical discussion where we feel that we’re being judged. However is the statement “God knows my heart” valid in the context we really use it; which is usually to validate ourselves from violating God’s law? If Jesus Christ the Son of God is truly the only one who can validate us before the Father, what happens if what we think we know about our own heart is not in accordance with what He knows about it? Remember, in Mark 7:21 Christ pointed out that

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Do you know your heart? It is easy for all of us to say yes to that question and paint our hearts in accordance to the will of God, unless enlightened by the Holy Spirit, whom among us would argue? Certainly not Saul before he became Paul, nor Judas Iscariot before he realized the affect of his betrayal of Christ, or how about my favorite, Uzza? Yes Uzza; you know the guy who reached out to keep the Ark of the Covenant from falling off the wagon, but instead God struck him dead on the the spot because he wasn’t supposed to touch it(1 Chronicles 13:9-10)?…that guy. Was Uzza’s heart not in the right place? In this example can God be at fault for taking his anger out on a man who was only trying to keep the Ark from falling? I’m sure Uzza would’ve agreed with the popular statement “God knows my heart” had this topic been discussed with him. In fact, evident of Uzza’s motive on that day is the mood of the transportation found in the previous verse in 1 Chronicles 13:9-10 is verse 8: [And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets] they were praising God, and yet God was angry. In their hearts, David, Uzza, and the Israelites thought they were pleasing God, they understood that God knew their heart and were praising Him, and yet at the very same time God was angry with them for what they thought they were doing right. Our hearts can deceive us. This is why the word of God exist. If it was up to our hearts and the understanding of it, if it had been about God knowing our hearts, then the events that took place on Calvary wouldn’t have been necessary. In fact, we ought not to live as God to know our hearts and our intentions, but we ought to live to seek and know God’s heart and will. This of course does not eliminate our hearts from the participation of the acceptance of the gift of Salvation, participating in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why I love the verse in Psalms 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Paul, formally known as Paul wrote “I die daily in” 1 Corinthians 15:31 when speaking on the issue. How can we know when our hearts are deceiving us? Well we must first return to the day we fell in love with Christ, on the day when I chose to give my life to Christ by the act of baptism, we all remember when we first met Jesus along the road of our lives, when we were filled with the excitement to do his will and follow him. We too like the Psalmist, asked Christ to clean our hearts, renew in us a new spirit.
Yes God knows your heart, yes its true, yes He is loving and graceful, but in your walk, for the sake of Salvation, you’d better know yours as God knows it if you’re going to live on that argument. Now it is not say that you should sit and be judged by every single over zealous, Bible thumping, narcissist out there, but in all things pray, and in all things seek Christ, make it about his will and not yours.
Now don’t just take my word for it, after all I just another blogger.

The Giving Day

Considering The Sabbath
Feb 26, 2011, presented by Pst. Melvyn W. Warfield, Jr.

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