Tag Archives: heart

A Window To Our Heart

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - A Window To Our Heart

God sees our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7).

We can’t (Jeremiah 17:9).

Our circumstances are often a means God uses to show us [our hearts] (Deuteronomy 8:2).

If we humble ourselves, admit our blindness, and ask God for sight (wisdom), our responses to life will show us our heart—who we really are.

But that’s not the end of the story. Seeing who we really are in the mirror reveals where we’re not clean and what’s out of place so that it may be corrected (James 1:25).

No one looks in a mirror if there is no hope for improvement.

But God.

His purposes are to make us into His image (Genesis 1:26), conformed to the image of His dear Son (Romans 8:29)—glorious.

He will make us to shine like the sun (Matthew 13:43).

To be clear, it’s a work God does with a life submitted to Him—when in humility we see our sin in the mirror and confess it (1 John 1:9).

So I strive to be sensitive to when God holds up a mirror, including through my circumstances and my response to them. Though I often don’t like what I see, I should not hide, but in humility, confront, confess and let God do what only He can do.

He will not fail to make me beautiful (Philippians 1:6).

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
— 2 Corinthians 3:18

Two Approaches To Jesus: Which Is Mine?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Two Approaches To Jesus: Which Is Mine?

There are two types of people who come to Jesus:

– Those who come to get something and when they don’t get it they fall away,

and

– Those who are willing to give everything for Him.

Only one group is saved.

“So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”
— Luke 14:33

God often tests us by taking things.

Consider Job.

These tests are not because God needs any information, but to reveal our heart: whether we’re of the world or whether we’re God glorifying salt—whether we have the wandering heart of the first group so that we can confess it, humble ourselves in repentance, and cry out to God to give us the steadfast heart of the second.

Why? These two things go hand in hand: His glory and our good.

I definitely struggle with the first nature that is still with me. I’m striving to kill it and to yield to His bringing forth in me the second.

The Ultimate Test

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Ultimate Test

Who we truly are is revealed not by what we do but by what we want.

That is the ultimate test. What we want is the measure by which we will be ultimately judged.

Truth and facts don’t matter when they conflict with what we want.

Reason is not pure. It is merely a device to justify our desires. We have a breathtaking capacity for rationalization.

Not what we do, but the condition of our heart is the principle thing, which is exposed by what we truly want.

What we want indicates who we’re with which in turn is indicated by what we’re willing to lose.

If we’re with Jesus we have a new heart that wants the kingdom of God, first—that is, above all.

The test of whether we have that heart and whether it truly wants the kingdom of God is what we’re willing to lose to get it.

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
— Mark 8:35

“So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
— Luke 18:22-23

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
— Philippians 3:8

“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”
— Hebrews 10:32-34

So, test yourselves, whether you’re in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).

And we can do that with one question:

What do I want most?

For me, I want to be in God with you,

I think.

God will test that. Am I willing to lose comfort and convenience for that? Am I willing to lose “being right” to be reconciled?

The demonic industrial church with her false teachers and prophets teach that the indication of your relationship and favor from God is what you gain.

But the whole counsel of God revealed in the person of Christ says His heart is indicated by what you’re willing to lose for Him.

What do you want most?