Heart Matters

UV3330/10000 Heart Matters

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Here is an Israelite indeed, (a true descendant of Jacob), in whom there is no guile or deceit nor duplicity.”

John 1 v 47

Jesus knows our hearts and our character. He could read the character of Nathanael even before he came to Him. He declared him to be a true descendant of Jacob but unlike Jacob, he had no guile or deceit in him. Nathanael had an undivided heart. Surprisingly when Nathanael was told by Philip that Jesus was from Nazareth, he remarked whether anything good let alone the Messiah come from a place like Nazareth. He had pre-judged Jesus. We should draw a lesson from this and not form opinions based on prejudices and lack of genuine knowledge. Jesus in contrast sees the good in every human as He saw that Nathanael was free of guile, deception and duplicity.

Jesus welcomes people to come to Him as they are and then He transforms them from within as He did with each of the disciples barring Judas who chose to become an instrument in the hand of the enemy to betray Him. He reads our hearts and character as a man reads a book. We can therefore, daily seek His guidance, His discernment to work on different negatives or weaknesses in our character. He gives us the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome the weaknesses of our own inner nature.

If there is one thing on earth that the Lord is most concerned about – it is the human heart. The word “heart” if we notice is a reversal of the word earth, hinting that we need a reversal of our heart to be fit for the kingdom of God. The values of this world are far apart from the values of the kingdom of God. We need to invite the Lord to send His all penetrating Word and all scanning Spirit to examine our hearts every day and guide us so that we are not deceived by the world or the enemy.