The Attitude Of Our Hearts

Yesterday morning the Lord took me to a verse (2 Chronicles 25:2) that I didn’t recall reading before – although I knew I must have done, because I’ve read both books of Chronicles previously!  The ‘He’ referred to is a chap called Amaziah and, at that point in time he was the king.  And this is what it says:  “He did right in the Lord’s sight, but not with a perfect or blameless heart.” Another translation puts it like this:  “Amaziah did what the Lord said was right. But he did not really want to obey the Lord.”

Joyce Meyer’s comment on this verse in her Study Bible, was to highlight the attitude of Amaziah’s heart and how it resulted in God ‘not being pleased with him, and how that was a scary situation!  My understanding of that is that we can do the right thing, but with the wrong motive – which doesn’t go down well with the Lord….

I have to say that it certainly had me pondering on Amaziah and his heart attitude – and wondering about my own!

The Lord Looks On the Heart

Then my thoughts turned to another situation concerning the heart.  

I’m sure that most of you have heard, and probably read as well, the account of how the Lord sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a new King of Israel.  The reason for this was because the current king, Saul, was failing to fulfil his duties in the realm of being obedient to what the Lord was asking him to do.  And I thought – here we have another man whose heart wasn’t quite in the right attitude either!

With God’s help Samuel tracked down the family to which the new king belonged but, initially, chose the wrong member.  God’s comment to Samuel was that He looks ‘on the heart’ whereas ‘man’ looks at the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7).  This was when David first appeared on the scene and was anointed to become King, although this didn’t actually happen until over 20 years later!

What Is My Heart Like?

LAfter pondering on both the situations I’ve shared with you, I started asking the Lord what He wanted me to learn from it all!  That’s when I remembered these verses in the Psalms – and you might guess that they were written by David!

He’s talking to the Lord and saying:  “Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 AMPC

And I am reminded of the responsibility we have, you and me, as to what we allow into our hearts to influence the way we live our lives.  In other words what the actual attitude of our hearts is on a day to day basis.

I can recall times when I’ve specifically asked the Lord to search my heart – and to deal with anything that is there that shouldn’t be.  But as I’ve been sharing this I’m aware that I need to maybe do that more often.  I’m not saying we should be introspective and go ‘digging’ as it were; but we do need to open our hearts to the Lord and ask Him to do the checking up and see if anything has crept in…..  The enemy is so devious and we need to keep short accounts – or at least, I know that I need to!

This may have found this challenging as you’ve read this, but be encouraged!  Remember our Father loves us and wants to take us into a deeper love relationship with Him – and that means we need to allow Him to do in us what He needs to in order for that to happen.

Be blessed and encouraged as you walk with Jesus through this coming week.