Category Archives: God

Looking into your heart?

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Physical heart-health is important, but spiritual heart-health is even more so. In the Bible King David is renowned as “a man after God’s own heart” — a man whose heart pleased his God and Maker. We are told (1st Samuel 16:7) that “…the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” David himself would later share the same conviction (that God delights in upright hearts) in his famous penitential psalm (51:6), “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”

What does God see in your heart?

God can look into the hearts of men, and we cannot. Or can we? Of course we cannot see into the hearts of other men, and they cannot see into our heart. But we can, to some degree at least, see into our own heart.

Walt Chantry, in writing about David, agrees, and adds an most important caveat —

“To some extent, I can look into my own heart as God can. No other man may do so. God and I have access to the inner workings of my heart (mind, emotions, will). However, as Jeremiah 17:9-10 tells us, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind.’ There are depths to our sin which are self-deceiving.”

Plenty to think and pray about here. Also, make sure to make good use of your Bible, in accord with God’s instructions:

“How can va young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:9-11, esv

Words for the Grieving Ones

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On Thursday morning many friends will gather alongside a family as they lay to rest a much loved wife and mother, who died in the early morning hours last Monday. Only a few months ago she was in the prime of life, caring for her husband, serving children in a local school and walking faithfully with her Lord. Then the cancers came; and a grim prognosis; and a season of difficulty for this saint. Grief gained a beachhead in our hearts weeks ago, and its invasion is now in full force.

In the midst of her treatments and the dramatic changes to her body, though, her spirit was undimmed and her delight in her family and daily life continued. Her simple, bright online notes communicated a measure of the wonderful personality we knew and loved — and encouraged many of us to hold our days more precious too. In her last days, we often saw evidence of the Scripture, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 esv

I had been much in fervent prayer for this sister for many weeks, in the pulpit and in private. I also have often wondered why such afflictions came to such a choice servant in the prime of her life. Although we do not often discover the answer to such “why” questions, we are reminded in the Bible about the holy and good character of our God. For instance, just today I read further in the passage cited above (Lamentations 3) and found these words about our God:

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. …For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” (3:25, 31-33)

That last verse in particular is instructive: We dare not judge the heart of God simply by a few of His actions. An old puritan pastor, Thomas Brooks, unfolds some implications of this text, for those wrestling with grief:

“No man can tell how the heart of God stands by his actions. His hand of severity may lie hard upon those upon whom he has set his heart as you see in Job and Lazarus. …Consider the gracious, blessed, soul-quieting conclusions that come out of afflictions. As Christ commanded the boisterous winds and the roaring raging seas — “He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (Matt. 8:26) — so let the conscience speak to the soul: Be quiet and still; ‘Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord’ (Psa. 27:14), and ‘Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.’ (Psa. 37:7).


May the truth of God’s Word be like a sea-wall against the battering waves of our grief. God does not willingly or wantonly afflict His children! Our sovereign Lord does all things in accordance with His perfect will, for His glory and (ultimately) for the good of His people! And “He will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.”

~ pdb