Retaining the Standard

Where Is Your Heart?

Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” I ask you now to consider this: Where is your heart?

You can fool a lot of people in the world. You can sometimes fool your parents, your friends, your spouse, your boss, your teachers, and members of the your church. You can make them all think you are one person, while in reality living a different life as a different person. If you have ever been ashamed of the fact that you are a Christian, you have done this. If you have ever been a hypocrite, you have done this. If your behavior has ever denied that you are a child of God, you have done this.

But you can’t fool God about who you are on the inside. You might go to church and go through all the motions of religion and worship, and you might wear a nice suit or dress and carry a big Bible around and talk a lot about Jesus, and you might make large donations in the offering tray, and you might lead beautiful prayers or preach great sermons right out of the Bible, and you might do a lot of good things for the people around you and for the church, but if your heart is not in it, God knows.

In 1 Tim. 1:5, Paul said that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” The word “sincere” comes from 2 Greek words, “without wax.” In the first century, dishes and bowls were made of clay pottery. Whenever one of those clay dishes developed a crack, the crack could be sealed and repaired with wax. But in spite of the repair, the dish was no longer perfect. It had wax, (“ceres”) in it. Paul said that our faith needs to be sincere (“without wax”). Our faith shouldn’t be cracked and faulty. It should be true and complete and whole. But if your faith is only an outward expression, only a show that you put on to impress certain people, and not an inward motivator that guides your life, then it is not a sincere faith. Heb. 10:22.

As I already said, God knows your heart, and we’re gonna look at a few Scriptures that illustrate this. We’ll start in John 2:23-25. In this section, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover, and as He was preaching and working miracles, many people believed in Him. But in verses 24-25 we see that Jesus was wary about trusting them, because He knew what was in their hearts. He could read their thoughts and intentions.

In 1 Samuel 16, God sent the prophet Samuel to Bethlehem to find a man to replace Saul as king. Samuel met Jesse and his sons. It says in verse 6 that when Samuel saw Jesse’s son Eliab, he thought that this was surely the one. Samuel was judging by the outward appearance. But read verse 7.

The first line and chorus of a hymn by R.E. Winsett says:

We don’t always like the idea of an All-Seeing Eye. We don’t like the idea of having our privacy invaded by anyone. If we did, we wouldn’t use locks and walls to protect our privacy. You can protect your privacy, to an extent, from other people. But there is no privacy from God. You can put up all the walls of false religion, you can design every shade of vain worship, you can erect great monuments of spiritual fervor and zeal around your life, and you might fool every person alive into believing that you are a pure and holy and righteous person, but God can see through it all. In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus told about a Pharisee who offered a prayer that was only meant to draw himself the attention and praise of men. But the tax-collector who humbled himself before God went away justified because God could see the true intentions of their hearts.

You can’t fake Him out or deceive Him. You have no secrets from Him. He sees you every where you go, even the places you know you shouldn’t be going. He hears all the words you say, and all the words you think but don’t say, even the ones you shouldn’t. He knows your heart, He knows who you really are on the inside and what you are really about. He knows your intentions, He knows your character, He knows your deepest fears and greatest desires. He knows everything about you, and knows you better than you know yourself. He knows everything you have ever done, and He knows everything you are capable of doing….whether good or evil. And the greatest thing about all that is, even though He knows you so well, He still loves you and still wants you to be saved.

There are no “secret sins” from God. You might not get caught by man, but God knows. Numbers 32:23 says that you can “be sure your sin will find you out.” You may not suffer the consequences of your sin in this life, but on Judgment Day, those secrets will be revealed and brought to account before God. See Romans 2:16 and Hebrews 4:12-13.

God knows what you need as well. He knows before you ask, and before you even know yourself, what you need. But when you pray to God and ask for His blessing, you better make sure your heart is right. James 4:3.

It is time to purify your heart if it is not sincere and wholly given to the Lord. James 4:8. The double-minded man is the one who pretends to lead one life while secretly leading another. He is a hypocrite. He is an actor. He is in fact a liar because he pretends to be something he is not, he claims to believe something he does not believe, and he shows people a false image of who he wants them to see. But Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). See also Col. 3:22-23 & Eph. 6:5-7.

The true measure of a man’s devotion to a cause is not shown by what he is willing to give out of his abundance, but by what he is willing to give up even in poverty. If you are truly devoted to God, you will give up all sin. You will give up your own will and take His. If you are devoted to the work of His Church, you will also make sacrifices to see it succeed. When the contribution tray is passed to you, if your heart is right, you will make a sacrificial offering--A SACRIFICE-- that is acceptable to the Lord. When you are called upon to do some personal work, you will be willing to give up your own time and pleasure and comfort to do it. Where ever your heart is, that is where your greatest devotion will be.

We don’t have to be afraid of God’s All-Seeing Eye. We don’t have to be offended that He watches all we do. If we are living according to His Will, we have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.

Invitation: Salvation speaks directly to the heart. John 14:1; Romans 10:9-10; Acts 2:37-38. So where is your heart today? Don’t lie to yourself, don’t deceive yourself. If you can’t be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with? Besides, even if you do fool yourself, you can’t fool God. The All-Seeing Eye is watching and waiting for you to make your life right.

Written by David F. Sims, doing my part to "turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6)

All quotes taken from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise stated.

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