What’s in Your Heart?


1 Kings 8:14-21
14 Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood.
15 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with His hand has fulfilled what He promised with His mouth to David my father, saying,
16 ‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.’
17 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
18 But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.
19 Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’
20 Now the Lord has fulfilled His promise that He made. For I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
21 And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

When I was a kid in school there were certain classes where I prayed the teacher would allow for “extra credit” because that was the only way I had a hope of passing. (Most of these prayers went up during various math classes – not my strong suit.) While it was in my heart to do well I knew that I would struggle and sweat and still do poorly. On my first geometry test, you scored 63% on the exam just for showing up to class and writing your name on the top of the test paper. I got a 67%. (Laugh here). Fortunately, that teacher allowed me to do extra projects in order to get my grade up to a place where I could actually pass. (That was my last attempt at math in High School.)  It really didn’t matter that I wanted to succeed. The attitude of my heart meant nothing in the grade book.

But – the attitude in our hearts is critical to God. The old cliché says “actions speak louder than words”. Well, for God, what is in our hearts speaks even louder than our actions, for it is there that all of our passions, beliefs, and motivations lie in all their truth. You can’t fake God out by pretending to love Him. Solomon makes note of the desires of David’s heart to build a Temple for God. God was pleased by that desire even though He didn’t allow David to fulfill that dream. The actual Temple didn’t matter to God but the condition of David’s heart did! And of course the same is true for us as well. God is vitally interested and concerned about what is going on in our hearts. He is able to see and read what truly lies within and it is important to Him. We might be able to fool the rest of the population, but God always knows where you’re at on the inside. Throughout the Old Testament God continually reminds His people that their empty sacrifices meant nothing to Him. He is far more concerned with motivations and attitudes.

Frankly, some days my attitude stinks! I go through the motions and look like I’m doing all the right things. But on the inside I’m swirling (or maybe even seething) and God sees that. Instead of trying to hide those negative attitudes, honesty is the better idea. Hold all that garbage up to God and tell Him about it. What birthed this bad attitude? Are you willing to surrender it? He can take it. And after you’ve shared those crummy feelings, your relationship with Him will be deeper and more meaningful. In the reverse, don’t forget to also share those great attitudes of love and praise. He wants to hear those too!

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