Our Heart Should Change:

This week I started a new devotional book about the Sermon on the Mount, or the very famous message Jesus gave his followers and those who were listening to Him. This includes a variety of life lessons such as the Beatitudes.  The Beatitudes are a list of the ways we should live on a regular basis, even when it is hard.  This includes having mercy on others, having a hunger and a thirst for righteousness, prioritizing being meek and having a poor spirit in our own abilities because it is important to know Christ is the only one who can save us and has come to do that to us.  

One quote I really enjoyed learning about this particular morning was about the importance of our hearts, and the importance of our attitude when it comes to Christ.  Many times our hearts and our attitude are way more important than the actual work we do.  This was stating, “The Gospel puts greater weight upon our attitude than upon our actions…we have to be Christian before we can act as Christian.” (Schmucker, Kristin “On Earth as it is Heaven, The Sermon on the Mount”)  

I have never thought about this before in this exact way.  I suppose I knew our thoughts and our internal relationship with God is more important than the physical way we act with our actions. We do need to care about what the heart is doing before we can really focus on our actions.  We as people, and even as Christians believe our actions are the most important thing. We may think what we do and our outside appearance is what is most important.  This is why we try to make ourselves feel better when we are doing a lot of serving or we are donating to the church/organizations. 

This reminds me also of the story the kids learned a few weeks ago in the children’s ministry I help with on Sundays.  It was the story of the two different prayers.  One was the Pharisee who was in front of the big crowd and saying a big prayer.  He is using big words and is looking really religious.  However, then on the other side is a tax collector, a man who was considered a traitor.  He was doing silent prayers. He didn’t want to make a scene of himself because he knew he would be outed by a lot of people for his lack of Christianity.  

If you have ever read this story in the book of Luke chapter 18, we can see the person the Lord chose to acknowledge was the tax collector who usually people would try to stay far away from.  He chose to lift this tax collector up because he was trying to really have a deep connection to God and not just praying for the sake of looking good in front of everyone.  He wasn’t just caring about appearances.  The Lord cares about our heart.  He cared about the tax collector’s heart and his desire to know Christ.  

We see this in verse 14 which says, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  (Luke 18:14).  We need to have a humble heart, we need to have a reliant heart.  The same action of prayer and talking to God was seen very differently by the father.  This is because God doesn’t just see the action but he sees the heart.  Because we can’t be a Christian if we are not changed internally.  

I will be honest when I say I have recently been struggling emotionally.  There has been a lot going on in my personal life adding to my stress.  However, this doesn’t mean I can let the bitterness really soak into my heart.  Even though I do have a lot of anger and there are a lot of things that are not going exactly right, this doesn’t mean I should continuously stay angry or upset.  

The challenge of the week is to be reflective over your heart.  Are there moments and times when you are not very good about having a good heart?  Are there people you find incredibly hard to love, even when you have been called to love.   Are there times when you care more about how people see you than what you really are?  Are there overall times when you don’t feel as though you are a Christian internally and only physically?  If any of the answers to those questions was yes, try to see what you can change both internally and externally this week.