"Heart Of God"

  How you view things and people is determined by your heart. Yes, your heart determines so much about you in approach and  your view! If the heart feeds on the wrong things, your view of individuals and situations will be according to that. Here's a great illustration of that. Jesus was dining with Simon the Pharisee. A woman, a known sinner among them, came in falling at the feet of Jesus washing His feet with her hair, kissing His feet and anointing His them with perfume. (Luke 7) Jesus asked Simon to look at the woman. Two people looking at the same woman. Simon saw a sinner and Jesus saw her forgiven. In fact, Simon saw Jesus as less than a Prophet! It all depended on the heart. The prodigal returns and the father see his son returned and back in fellowship. His son was a source of joy! The older brother saw the heathen that was rewarded for his wickedness!

  We see it in the church all the time. People get upset about someone and they in turn look for ways to justify their conclusion about the individual. They aren't wanting to unify or love, they want to declare their own judgment about that individual and move as far from them as possible. It all comes from a heart tainted, not given to God to see things from God's eyes and perspective. God created us and all He got from man was our rebellion and thrusting Him aside. What did God do? He came looking to reconcile us to Himself through Jesus. Oh yes, there are those who hold to their ungodliness that the Lord will deal with but He still looks and wants all saved. That's the heart of God! The self-righteous chief priests and Pharisees saw a crowd of people accursed. (John 7:49) Jesus saw the multitudes as "sheep without a shepherd." (Matt. 9:36) Our view of people is either seen through the eyes of our  blemished heart or the eyes of God's heart that has affected our heart.

  It is so hard for me to grasp how God can see us humans worth dying for. With all our smugness, filth and self-righteousness, with our lips attacking one another and the sin and shame we try to cover, God sees us as someone worth loving! And His love for us is something glorious. Oh yes, God sees our sin and He sees it clearly. God is against sin and will punish the unrepentant sinful. All of this is fact but behind all this declaration of judgment, there is also a yearning for man to turn away from their sin and to come to His side. There is this place in the middle of the heart of God that desires deeply to help us, the helpless. That's the heart we need to develop. We need our hearts molded by the Lord and not by our own thinking and desires. Maybe it's time to start praying for the Lord to soften our hearts so we can see things as He sees things! And I don't understand one thing that I just spoke about God but I'm grateful for His love toward me!!