In other words, the innermost part of God, His very being, is love; God loves us with all His heart. When He describes or talks about me in relation to my heart, He is telling me something about Himself.
There are not many verses that describe God’s heart. The first is when God saw sin growing rampant in the world:
Genesis 6:5–6. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
I’m not the Creator, yet the evil in the earth grieves my heart too. I understand and can accept my grief more easily from reading that God has the same reaction to evil.
Reading more, the OT speaks of people with willing hearts who gave their skills and possessions to build a place of worship. God has a willing heart and gives His power and resources to do the same. He tells His people to not forget what He has shown them for God does not forget. They are to search after Him with all their heart for He seeks us with all His heart. He warns them not to have a heart that is deceived or that resists Him because His heart is always set on truth and to love and bless them.
Hundreds of verses carry the same ideas. God tells His people to have pure hearts, to serve Him with all their heart, to fill their hearts with His truths, and that He seeks those who are after His own heart. When that was not happening, He promised to give them a new heart:
Jeremiah 24:7. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
When Jesus came, lived and died and rose again, He brought new life to all who believe do that we could draw near to Him with that new heart that He promised. This is why He said in Matthew 5:8. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Put it all together and I see that because of a new heart, I am better able to understand the heart of God.
Even though I still struggle with the old flesh and old way of doing things, the Lord continues to incline my heart toward Him so that, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” (John 7:38) Faith changes the heart, even makes it like God’s life-giving heart.
The heart is the center of my spiritual life. It is where temptation and doubt strike, but also devotion and faith. By myself, I cannot make the changes or maintain them. The Lord opened my heart, just as He opened the hearts of those who first believed . . .
Acts 16:14. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
When that happened to me, the Holy Spirit came to live in my heart yet I’m responsible to let Him rule as 1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord” and not harden my heart against His rule or the rule of peace that comes as a wonderful demonstration of the heart of God . . . “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6) I’m in awe at realizing that all the great virtues God wants for my heart is because it makes it more like His heart. I can know Him better, even see His glory in His commandments. How awesome — when I obey Him from the heart, He can use me to show His incredible heart to others.
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