This week I received an object lesson on the fact that God looks on the heart.
One morning as I was squeezing oranges for breakfast, a regular healthy habit, I
noticed that many of the oranges that I was squeezing had rather ugly spots and
blemishes on the outside skin. But when I cut them open they looked beautiful on
the inside and rendered an abundance of sweet juice.
However one orange that I cut in half had a black spot of spoilage right in the
middle. I rejected it and threw it in the compost pile because I didn't want it
to ruin the good taste of the other orange juice that I had already made. This
particular orange looked good on the outside with hardly a blemish, and even
though a lot of the inside looked good, the dark spot of rottenness in the
middle made it a reject.
Even so, we may have an attractive outward appearance and even perform a lot of
worthy acts of kindness, but if we have an evil heart of unbelief, we will still
be rejected.
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Psalm 66:18
"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called
To day, lest any of you be hardened though the deceitfulness of sin. For we are
made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast
unto the end; while it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not
your hearts, as in the provocation" Hebrews 3:12-13
"But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of
his stature: because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth;
for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." 1
Samuel 16:7
George W. Romer
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