Monday, March 3, 2008

 

How Will They Know Series

 

1 Samuel 16:7 “….the Lord looks at the heart.” 

 

A Matter of the Heart

 

In my mid-50’s I don’t look so terribly different from the way I looked most of my life.   It just cost more and takes a lot more time! 

 

This past week I went in to have a treatment on the pre-cancers on my face, which usually means your face looks better when the healing is all finished.   (Thank you Dr. Haley, my dermatologist.)     My teeth look beautiful.    They are over-bleached, much crowned, and beautifully straightened. (Thank you, Dr. Northcutt and Dr. McDuffie.)  

 

My weight and muscle structure also is roughly the same as when I was 16 years old. (Thank you, Randy Craig, my rehab trainer, Paul Davis and Mark Kolakoski, my running buddies.)  My hair looks much the same with two exceptions, as it did most of my life.   There is the exception  in those forgettable years when it was very long. The second exception is that my hair now has changed colors somewhat.  (Thank you to my grandfathers who didn’t go bald and Alicia Lucas who keeps it cut.)    

 

Even if we drink pickle juice every day of our lives and are completely preserved, what really matters is not our outside appearance but the state of our soul. 

 

You may remember from 1 Samuel that King Saul looked like a king. He was erudite, handsome, and intelligent but he didn’t have the heart of a king.   Samuel, the great prophet, was sent looking for a new king for Israel.  God sent him to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse.   Samuel asked Jesse to bring his sons before him.    Jesse looked at all the seven sons that were there.  He knew he had been called to pick one of the sons as king.  Every one was tall, handsome, and strong.   Each one, from his appearance, could be a king.  

 

Samuel went down and prayed about each son and with each son, God said, “Not this one.”   Finally after the seventh son, as God answered no for each, Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”   “There is still the youngest.”  Jesse answered.   “But he is tending the sheep.”   Samuel said, “Send for him,” and when David came the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, …. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 

 

The people of our culture often spend a great deal of time and money maintaining or improving their appearances.   What really matters is the state of our heart.   We must be sure that our hearts are one with God.   No matter how much effort we put into our outward appearance, the truth is all that really matters: do our hearts beat for God? 

 

Prayer:

Dear Lord, help me to bend my heart toward you.  Amen.