Tag: forgiveness

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Heart Condition

What is the condition of your heart?

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1Samuel 16:7

I was very pleased with my purchases. I had gotten some good deals. Smiling I reached for my receipt. The cashier leaned in, “Your senior discounts on there. Have a good day.” Her eyes smiled above a mask that had a villainous grin with exaggerated teeth. I started to protest but as I glanced at the receipt and saw the additional 10% reduction, I thanked her and left the store.

Firstly, I am not yet a senior. I do however, have quite a bit of gray sprouting about my temples. I have no doubt that this cashier chose that characteristic as her reason for assuming I was a senior citizen.

Thoroughly offended I quickly began to text my friends, giving them a similar narrative as you have just read.

As much as I was offended by the lady’s assumption, there is a relatively easy fix to hide my gray. However, there is no hiding your heart from God. God is not concerned about your grays, you clothing or your car. He is interested in your heart only. What is the condition of your heart? Do you fill it with humility, love and forgiveness or are you hiding something a bit different?

When God looks at us, he does not see the physical. Rather he looks only into our hearts. What is in our hearts influences how we chose to serve the Lord. Is your heart compassionate to others? Is it generous and merciful?

Samuel needed to be reminded that appearances mean nothing. As each of the sons of Jesse passed Samuel, (1 Samuel 16) he like most of us, was only focused on what his eyes could see and not what was hidden beneath. A man or woman’s worth is not in their appearance but in their heart.

My gray hairs may be a product of my advancing age, but what does your heart produce? How much time do you spend grooming your outside verses the inside? Take time this week to look inward and examine your heart. If people when they looked at you, saw only the condition of your heart, what would they see?

Typist for Jesus

A Bitter Cup

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews 12:15

I poured hot black coffee into my favorite cup and then followed up with sugar and cream that turned my cup light. I went down the hall to my office and settled into my chair. I was eager to get the hot coffee in my body and get the caffeine pumping. Lifting the cup to my lips, I grimaced. It was bitter and disappointing. I set it on my desk and stared at it. So now I had to decide if I was going to drink from the bitter cup.

 I have the choice of whether or not to drink from my bitter cup, and I have the option of whether or not to allow bitterness to fill my heart. But how can I do that? How do I prevent bitterness from entering into my life?  

  The straightforward answer is forgiveness. Lack of forgiveness leads to resentment and bitterness. I have said and heard others say, “I just can’t forgive,” possibly it is more about an unwillingness to forgive. When we have an unforgiving spirit, our eyes are not on Jesus; they are fixed on ourselves. You may be thinking, but you don’t understand, you don’t know what they did. You don’t know what I suffered.  That is true, I do not know, but Jesus does. Jesus understands. He lived a perfect life, yet he was beaten, spit on, mocked, and finally nailed to a cross.  

Pray for those that have wronged you. It is challenging to remain unforgiving toward someone that you are praying. I am not saying that it is easy, I know personally, it is not. However, we are to forgive because Jesus forgave us.  

Typist for Jesus