Heart

How is your heart and what is the real desire of your heart?  The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.  Who really knows how bad it is?”  From birth we have inherited a sin nature and because of it our thoughts and intents lean toward sin.  Your heart says a lot about who you are.  

If your heart is good, you will bring about good things from your mouth, if it is bad the opposite will normally take place.  This is what it says in Luke 6:45, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”  What comes out of your mouth is a good indicator of what is going on in the heart and what condition your heart is in.  Through our speech and our actions Jesus can know our real motivations, faith and character. The Lord hears it all; nothing we say is hidden from Him even if we speak in secret.

Jesus said this while speaking to a multitude of people in Luke 12:1-3, “Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy. The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!’”

Jesus was warning His disciples about hypocrisy, trying to put on a good appearance when your heart is far from God.  The Pharisees put on a good show, as far as the outward appearance was concerned, but they couldn’t hide their selfishness and their bad attitudes for long, instead of being devoted leaders they were imposters.  Be careful here, it is easy to criticize others because of hypocrisy, but we need to be very careful of this sin ourselves.  

Like I said earlier in this Tidbit; how is your heart and what is the real desire of your heart?  Jesus also said this about the heart in Matthew 15:8-9, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  The Prophet Isaiah also criticized hypocrisy in Isaiah 29:13 and Jesus applied these words to these religious leaders also.  If we claim to honor God at any time but our hearts are far from Him, it means absolutely nothing.  It is never good enough to act religious; we need to have sincere attitudes and actions to back it up.  If our attitudes and actions are like that of the Pharisees then we are no different than they were.  Jesus said this in Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The heart I am talking about is the center of your being, the thing that motivates you and your behavior and helps stir up your emotions and your actions.  Is that part of you sold out to the Lord, or are there other more important things stored up in there?  Do your actions and words line up with your motivations and intentions, or do you say one thing and mean something completely different?  

If this is the kind of person you are then your heart is not right and you can stand in line with the hypocrites.  It is easy to flatter people to get what you want, but in the end your sins will find you out.  If this is you, you are not beyond the Lord’s help and He still loves you.  He loved the Pharisees, but He hated their sins and their bad attitudes.  Repent and confess your sins and receive His forgiveness and let Jesus heal your heart.  Something to think about, have a great day and may God bless you and yours!!