{"id":2821,"date":"2015-06-21T00:35:41","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T07:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoc6.org\/global\/?p=2821"},"modified":"2015-06-21T07:36:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T14:36:53","slug":"0621-god-sees-your-heart-%e7%ae%b41511-20-%e5%be%92148-28-%e7%8e%8b%e4%b8%8a822-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoc6.org\/global\/2015\/06\/21\/0621-god-sees-your-heart-%e7%ae%b41511-20-%e5%be%92148-28-%e7%8e%8b%e4%b8%8a822-99\/","title":{"rendered":"06\/21: God Sees Your Heart (\u7bb415:11-20 \u5f9214:8-28 \u738b\u4e0a8:22-9:9)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u8bfb\u7ecf\uff1a\u7bb415:11-20 \u5f9214:8-28 \u738b\u4e0a8:22-9:9<\/h2>\n

God Sees Your Heart<\/h2>\n
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Paul Swala was in prison in Zambia. He was charged with treason. He was accused of being involved in a coup to overthrow the government. While in prison he did Alpha. He encountered Jesus and cried out for God to save him. Extraordinarily, he was the only one of the group of sixty-nine accused who was acquitted. He told his story last moth, at our Leadership Conference at the Royal Albert Hall.\u00a0His face radiated the joy of the Lord. He told us how, as Alpha Prisons\u2019 Coordinator for Zambia, he has now been into every <\/em>prison in Zambia sharing the good news about Jesus Christ and how, even in the direst of situations, Jesus can bring hope and change hearts. He said, ‘I’ve never seen a friend like Jesus’ God really\u00a0has filled his heart with joy.<\/p>\n

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The word \u2018heart\u2019 appears in all the passages for today. In fact, it is used seventeen times in total. It is used in these passages to mean everything that is going on inside of us. When we think of the heart we tend to associate it with emotions. The Hebrew understanding was wider than that. It included the emotions, but it also involved the mind, the conscience and the will.<\/p>\n

Your heart lies \u2018open before the Lord\u2019 (Proverbs 15:11).\u00a0Only God sees and knows the hearts of every human being (1 Kings 8:39). In the passages for today, we learn about how God sees our hearts, and fills them with joy \u2013 even in the most unlikely circumstances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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1. Your face reflects your heart<\/h2>\n

Proverbs 15:11-20<\/a>Some people\u2019s faces radiate love and joy. Their smile puts us at ease and cheers us up. Others may have a rather more sour expression on their face and can make us feel very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Your face often reflects your heart. \u2018A happy heart <\/em>makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit\u2019 (v.13). I remember a good friend of ours, Michael Coates (father of Archie Coates \u2013 Vicar of St Peter\u2019s, Brighton), saying that the life we have lived eventually shows on our face and, therefore, everybody over forty is responsible for their face!<\/p>\n

Even where you manage to hide your heart from those around you, God can still see it: \u2018Even hell holds no secrets from God \u2013 do you think he can\u2019t read human hearts?\u2019 (v.11, MSG).<\/p>\n

God is interested in your heart. This passage gives some wise advice on how you can feed your heart: \u2018The discerning heart<\/em> seeks knowledge\u2019 (v.14); \u2018A cheerful heart<\/em> fills the day with song\u2019 (v.15b, MSG). The writer gives an example of how the inside is so much more important than the outside: \u2018Better a bread crust shared in love than a slab of prime rib served in hate\u2019 (v.17, MSG). Love and friendship are what make an evening fun. The quality of the food is of lesser importance.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Lord, that you see beyond the outward appearance into my heart. Through your Spirit within me, fill my heart with joy. May my face reflect the love and joy you put in my heart and bring encouragement and confidence to everyone I encounter.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2. Your heart can be full of joy in spite of outward circumstances<\/h2>\n

Acts 14:8-28<\/a>Joy comes from the heart and is not necessarily connected with your outward circumstances. Sometimes you face difficulties in life, not because you are doing something wrong, but because you are doing something right.<\/p>\n

Paul faced huge difficulties but was filled with joy because he was doing something right and making a massive difference to the world.<\/p>\n

He was conducting the first deliberate evangelistic campaign into the Gentile world. It was this that led to Christianity becoming not just a Jewish sect, but a world \u2018religion\u2019. God \u2018used them to throw the door of faith wide open so people of all nations could come streaming in\u2019 (v.27, MSG).<\/p>\n

Paul speaks of \u2018all that God had done through them<\/em>\u2019 (v.27). Yet outwardly the odds were stacked against him. He appeared very unimpressive (2 Corinthians 10:10). One description of Paul\u2019s physical appearance at this time (in a second-century document called \u2018The Acts of Paul and Thecla\u2019) describes him as \u2018a man little of stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows joining, and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace: for sometimes he appeared like a man, and sometimes he had the face of an angel.\u2019<\/p>\n

He not only looked unimpressive but he suffered from some physical illness (Galatians 4:13). In addition to all this, his body must have been battered and bruised by all the physical persecution he had suffered. On this occasion, the crowd beat him unconscious and left him for dead (Acts 14:19).<\/p>\n

Like so many who have followed in Paul\u2019s footsteps, in spite of all his physical suffering, his heart was full of joy<\/em>, and God worked through him. God used Paul in his weakness. This encourages us to believe that God can also work through us in our weakness.<\/p>\n

This heartfelt joy is one of a variety of different kinds of hearts we see in this passage:<\/p>\n