Good Morning Friends,
“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now then, you
Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of
greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside
make the inside also? But give what is inside [the dish] to the poor, and
everything will be clean for you. Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a
tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect
justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without
leaving the former undone.’” (Luke 11:39-42)
Which are you more concerned about – the image
you present or the actual state of your heart?
For the Pharisees, their image was of foremost
importance. They believed that they would be judged by God by what they were on
the outside, without regard to what was in their hearts. Boy, did they get that
wrong.
Jesus looked into the hearts of the Pharisees
and came down with greater criticism and judgment on them than He did on anyone
else. Apparently, from God’s perspective, the heart is pretty important. In
fact, God judges by what is in our hearts, not what our image looks like.
That doesn’t mean that our actions aren’t
important. Our actions are important, but only if they come from hearts that
are right before God. Our good actions can’t ever make up for our bad hearts.
But pure hearts do make up for our failures of action.
So, here’s the point: open your heart to the
Lord and allow Him to change you – from the inside out. That’s the only way
real and lasting change happens – from the inside out. Real and lasting change
doesn’t happen from the outside in.
His, by Grace, Steve
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