How's Your Heart?

My former Sunday school teacher used to remind our class that God judges a man by his heart.

"For this people's heart become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes." Acts 28:27

How's your heart for God? Do you desire to please God or to please man? Is it important what God thinks when he looks at your heart?

A hard heart is far from God. It is unyielding, judgmental, uncaring, self-centered, and stubborn.

A hard heart hates, it is unforgiving and exudes death. Conversely, a soft heart yields. It gives the benefit of the doubt. It considers the needs of others. It cares. It loves. A soft heart provides rich soil for a fruitful walk with God and one another.

We are living in times when people heart's are hardened. We don't care if people are unemployed, have families to support, can't pay their mortgage notes, or need food and clothing. We just don't care. We are only concerned if we can make it. We don't love our fellow man or have any compassion for him. We are only concerned if we have a job, if we can pay our mortgage note or rent, if we have food or clothing. We live in a society today that only cares about themselves, not considering that it could happen to them.

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

Today, some people will put their own relative out of their houses; you can be their relative and they will tell you that you have to find your own way. I guess everyone is entitled to what they believe they should do, but I have a sadness about it. If a relative can't find refuge in a family's home, how will they find it elsewhere. There are people who have been out of work for a year, or more. We can't turn our backs on our own family members!

I think God is going to judge our hearts. I think God is looking down at men and women today to see how big is their heart.

God has a heart for his people. Once God's love was poured into the heart of the Apostle Paul, he yielded to the Holy Spirit. God's love transformed him. He received a new heart that was soft and eager to share Christ. We, too, were given new hearts when we were baptized. Still, do you agree that our tendency to develop a hard heart is not completely gone? I would have to say it has not completely gone.

I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit's conviction; because He lives in me, I cannot keep a calloused heart for very long. Hardness of heart is uncomfortable within me now. I used to be a selfish person until Jesus came into my life, not only has my heart changed, but I am a new creature in Christ. My desire is to please God and because God is expecting me to have a big heart, I can't just think about myself any more. Everything comes from God and God is expecting us to be hospitable, to share what with have with those less fortunate.

The more we yield to the Holy Spirit, the softer our hearts become, open to receive and give the love of Christ, who is our life.

Thought for Today: The heart of the matter is matter of the heart. Don't let your heart become hardened. God is watching.