Look For the Heart

Just a few words today about how God wants us to look at people. Someone I know said something to me several years ago that just gets bigger all the time. He told me, “Bro. Lary some people are looking for more reasons for people to be lost than they are for them to be saved.” Honestly I don’t think I have ever heard truer, or wiser words spoken. So what is so big about this saying? Plain and simple, the lack of any condemning spirit. I understand and love the spiritual reality that only “the pure in heart shall see God” (Mat. 3:5). And I reverence the saying with all love of holiness that says, “Follow peace with all men, AND holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). I also love the sobering admonitions throughout the Bible, very much including the new testament, that emphasize without compromise that “the wages of sin is death;” which admonition is most assuredly for born again believers (Rom. 6:23). Here’s a stellar example: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened , and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away , to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Heb. 6:4-6). Feel the fear of God in that one? I sure do. So I’ve established the fact that I’m not preaching a cotton candy Gospel where everybody who dies that claimed faith in Christ, goes on to glory as it were. But please allow me to say this: God is by all means looking for EVERY POSSIBLE REASON for people to be saved, as well as EVERY reason for people to NOT be lost! If we truly have the mind of Christ we are naturally going to do the same. It is manifest throughout the scriptures that “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (I Sam. 16:7).

Now what I’m getting to here is this: If we are walking in God’s love we are going to look at someone’s heart the best we can, and that means looking past their flaws. Looking on the outward appearance very much includes focusing on the apparent flaws that people have in their lives, their manner, their doings, etc. The love of God and the mind of Christ in a person looks past the faulty ways of someone and seeks to find the good about their heart and their motives, and it isn’t straining to do so. A lot of folks are doing a whole lot wrong but are meaning to do a whole lot right, and in many cases are doing that as well. I know people whose flaws are so glaring and so annoying that if one doesn’t possess the love of God with the mind of Christ, there simply is no way under the sun to find a whole lot of good about them or want to be around them. Not because it’s not there to find, but because man naturally looks at the outward appearance and isn’t looking for the good that is in the heart like God is. Some of these folks are some of God’s very finest, and those whom he considers some of his most precious jewels. I just absolutely love how God crosses my path with precious souls who most religious people would consider just too much trouble to deal with, and too far gone to waste time on. I personally esteem these well meaning souls to be better than myself, and count it a privilege to be in their company (Philip. 2:3). I have many who have expressed so much appreciation for the time, and love, and patience that I have spent on them; but they have no idea what a help and blessing they have been to me, and how much they have forwarded my growth in the Lord. I do let them know this of course, and express my appreciation to them likewise. In any event it is simply the love and grace of God that places any of us in these kinds of situations, and when it’s all said and done we need each other greatly, regardless of where we’re at spiritually, or who’s doing the helping and who’s doing the receiving. In other words we’re all the same if our hearts are toward God, regardless of where our apparent conditions seem to say we’re at.

I just can’t tell you how much I love the feel of seeing people this way and dealing with them as such. Nor can I rightly express how thankful I am that Jesus has made me able to look at people the way he looks at people. All I really care to see is the potential that someone has and the gifts that God has placed in them, and make it my business to bring those things out in them so that they can have the joy and productiveness that the Lord wants them to live in. Yes I know that some folks hearts are not toward God, but I also know that Jesus died for them so that they can be redeemed from that state. And no I can’t reach everybody with the love of God, but I need to be certain that it wasn’t for lack of wanting to. Far too many people have been far too conditioned to focus on the evident flaws that most people are going to exhibit, and the love of God never gets the opportunity to flow through them and allow them to see and feel where a lot of folks are really at in their hearts. That reminds me of another of the wisest and most powerful sayings that I’ve ever been told, and in fact it was by the father of the man who told me the other one. He simply said, “Bro. Lary, nobody really knows where you’re at except for the Lord.” Too simplistic for you? I have learned, and learned, and learned some more from that saying; and that over a period of more than thirty years. I’ve learned about myself and I’ve learned about others, but most of all I’ve learned about the good will and mercy of God from that saying; as is the case with the other. All I can say is that I’m certainly glad that God was looking, and has looked on my heart since I’ve been in this life, because if he would have been looking at my failures and flaws I would have been in a lot of trouble from the outset. So be comforted my friend, that if you want what is right, and you want to be what is right, God is going to make the way for you to get there, and for you to be saved in the end. If you have been focused on people’s flaws, and not enough on their potential and their heart, then remember the saying of the apostle Paul, who told us, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come , who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (I Cor. 4:5). Oh yeah, I might add that Jesus can redeem anyone from that flaw too. Isn’t God good?!! :)