“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2).
There is something dwelling in the hearts of all of us, something we may try to keep hidden from others, something we may even try to keep hidden from ourselves. But the Lord knows it, for He knows all the matters of our heart.
There is weight to everybody’s heart, I am not talking about an emotional state, whether you feel light-hearted or heavy-hearted; I am talking of the spiritual state that exists because of what you think, what you believe, what you seek to do and accomplish, what you desire or possibly covet.
Whatever it is that resides in your heart, no matter how you rationalize it to yourself, no matter the face you put on before others, the Lord knows and weighs it in the balances of the scales of His holy character and divine justice.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
This is the condition of our hearts when we are left to our own devices, when we rely on our own strength and abilities. Without the Lord, we are lost, hopelessly lost; we are sick, desperately sick. Our hearts are weighed down with the disease of a sinful nature, polluted with the sins we indulge in, sins we are unable to remove or atone for on our own.
Others may not know the depth of the depravity of our hearts, we might try to fool ourselves into believing we are not so bad, that we are better than our neighbors, our co-workers or our family members. But the Lord knows and weighs us, and we are found wanting, we are found lacking in ourselves.
There is verse after verse in the Bible that speaks to the condition of the heart; whether it be hardened, or defiant; whether it is ill or turned away from God. The helpless nature of the human heart is detailed in the pages of Scripture. Without Jesus, the Bible would turn out to be a hopeless and depressing chronicle of just what we truly are.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
The death of our Lord on the Cross, our trust and faith in the free gift of salvation His death offers to all is the way to purify those sick hearts so that they may see God. It is in Christ alone that our hearts can be measured and weighed and found acceptable to spend eternity in the divine Presence.
A new heart, cleansed and filled by the Spirit, a heart that now radiates the light of the Lord. Pure now, because we are in Christ, and the Father sees us through His Son, and not of ourselves alone. A purity that continues to refresh and cleanse even as we continue to struggle with the old self, the sin nature that has not been removed from our flesh, but has been replaced in the position of primacy within our spirit and soul.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This verse, taken from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), the core prayer of Hebrew Scripture, can make perfect sense to believers of the true Church when you take it in the context of the gift of salvation, and the cleansing of our hearts by the indwelling of the Spirit. The nation of Israel was commanded by these Old Testament verses to seek out and love the Lord, living for Him in their daily lives as a matter of course, for it was to be as natural and comprehensive in their lives as the act of breathing.
Yet we can see the struggle that Israel had living that out (a struggle which all of humanity has). We can see the need for a Savior to come for us, to die for us, to rise from the dead, to ascend into heaven and one day, to come first for His Church, and then in judgment to establish His rule and reign over His Kingdom upon the earth. He will judge, He will weigh the hearts of all, and all those who are not in Him through faith by grace will be found wanting and lacking.
Every heart has weight to it, for the Lord has stated He will weigh the hearts of man. Whether it is the weight of darkness or of light will depend on our position with Christ. The weight of your heart depends upon the faith of your heart.
Andy Coticchio
Rafter Cross Ministries