Where Is Your Heart?

I may have mentioned this before, but when I was a kid, I was rotten.

I’m serious! I know you may not believe me, but trust me. I still have plenty of spots of rot in me, though the Lord has changed me much- amen!

Anyway, my Bible reading this morning struck a chord with me:
Isaiah 29:13 “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:”

I was a liar when I was younger. This includes anything from verbal lies to behavioral lies. What does that mean?

Well, when I was in 7th grade I told one of my classmates that I had seven brothers and sisters. She knew of two (which were the only two I actually had), but I told her my mom had been married before and all the others were much older than me and had families of their own. Because I said it so convincingly, she believed me. When she asked me about my ‘older siblings’ later (in front of classmates) I would act like I had no idea what she was talking about, and make it seem I had never said such a thing.

I told you- rotten.

As for ‘behavioral lies’, when I was in elementary school, I used to run the water in the bathroom and put my toothbrush under it for a little while, but not actually brush my teeth. I often did the same thing with the bathtub.

Why? I suppose it boils down to me not wanting to be told what to do.

I loved my parents. At least I said I did. And I wrote lovely things about them in school, and loved telling my friends how great they were (and that was NOT lies). But it was obvious my heart was not truly toward them, because my actions were rebellious.

I got away with it for a while. I became a master at making sure my towel was wet enough to simulate having bathed, my teeth got wiped quickly with toilet paper to get the surface stuff off and make it look like I had brushed.

But eventually it was going to catch up with me.

My body odor (I was an active kid who loved to climb trees, catch all kinds of bugs, and wanted to be as strong as the boys) and my breath, were surely going to give me away at some point.
Did you know that pretending to clean those things doesn’t actually make them clean?

Whaddyaknow.

Did I know my teeth were dirty? Yes. Did I know I needed a bath? Yes. Did I like being told it was time to do something about it? Absolutely not.

But had my heart been in the right place, I would have obeyed my parents. I would have brushed my teeth and taken a bath, not only because I wanted to please them, but because I had experienced how it was good for me. I could trust my parents’ advice because they loved me and wanted my best.

In the scripture above, the people of Jerusalem, and even their leadership had taken their hearts out of worship. They said all the right things, they honored God with their lips, but their heart was not in it. And this is evidenced by their rebellious behavior.

It’s easy to play the game, but it’s eventually going to catch up with you. Knowing all the right ‘Christianese’ answers is not the same as spending time in a deep relationship with God.

In our pursuit of God, we cannot only engage our minds in a quest for knowledge. The Bible tells us that knowledge alone puffs up. (1 Cor. 8:1-3) We must engage our heart. After all, God tells us to love Him with all of it, too. (Matt. 22:37)

The Lord desires that we would walk with Him every day. And not trudge down a path behind Him because that’s ‘what Christians do’, but hurry along to catch up with Him because we want to spend time with Him; because our hearts are fully invested.

Psa 27:8 “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”

See how David’s heart responded to God? Not just empty words from someone who knew the right answers, but inside was faking it. His HEART said it would seek God. That’s what I want, too.

Lord help me not to ‘play the game’ but truly seek you with my heart every day.