As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.   Proverbs 27:19 ESV

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.   Proverbs 4:23 ESV

The Bible has a lot to say about our heart. When the Bible mentions the heart, it is not referring to the organ that pumps blood. It is referring to our feelings and how we think and see and react to others.

After working for years with people who had been incarcerated, I did find that it didn’t take long to be able to see their heart. If you pay careful attention and listen to what someone says, you get a good idea of what fills their heart.

Of course, the organ that pumps blood is covered and not visible, thank goodness for that. But the heart which encompasses our thoughts and our feelings and our attitude toward others is often very visible. Some hide it better than others and some think they are hiding it when they are leaving it out in the open for all to see.

When God sent Samuel to anoint young David as king of Israel, God told Samuel that He doesn’t look at man’s outward appearance but at his heart (1 Samuel 16:7). This was after God had rejected Saul as king because Saul was not someone after God’s own heart where David was (1 Samuel 13:14). Saul’s heart was all about Saul, and he tried some kind of half-way obedience. My friend, that will never work.

Jesus clearly states in Matthew 22:37-39 that we are to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This is how we keep the Ten Commandments. Jesus said if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15).

Our former pastor used to always say, “We are not to judge, but we are to inspect the fruit.” We are told in Matthew 7:20, “You will recognize them by their fruit.” As Christians who are devoted to Christ, we want to produce good fruit. We serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100:2) and enter His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).

When we are truly saved, our hearts long for the Lord, we seek the Lord, we thirst for the Lord (Psalm 63:1). We want to pray to Him continually and we want to study our Bibles to learn more about Him and His plan for us.

You may think you are fooling those around you, but your heart is showing. We are told in Matthew 12:34 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Just think about your speech in any given day. It is filled with hope and joy in the Lord or are you more concerned about the things of this world?

What about the things you text and post? They say a lot about the condition of a person’s heart as well.

If you earnestly desire to change your heart, God can help you with that. First of all, don’t follow your heart it will lie to you (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Maybe you once had a heart for the Lord, but you’ve gotten off track. That’s okay, God can help with that. Pray Psalm 51:10 which says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” In Ezekiel 11:19 God said, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit, I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” God will gladly help get your heart right, if you only ask.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says, “A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of his heart.”

You’re not hiding your heart from anyone, especially God. If you have a cold, hard heart it will show. If you have a heart on fire for God, that will show as well.

I’m telling you this because a hardened heart brings a tragic ending. Don’t take my word for it just read about the Pharaoh in Exodus 14 who drowned in the Red Sea. He did all the bad things he did because his heart was hard.

God won’t honor our hard hearts. Get your heart right with God now, before it’s too late.

Have a great day!