Becoming Like HimSample

Check Your Heart

I remember spending hours each year making sure everything was perfect for the first day of school.  From shopping for a new outfit to picking out the perfect shoes, I wanted to impress my friends (and haters) on day one. The first couple of weeks each year, I made tons of decisions about who to get to know based on what I could see. Whether it was the clothes they wore, the way they looked, or the things they did, my first impression was based on their outward appearance. 

But what we see on the outside is only part of the story. What’s on the inside tells us about who a person really is. We spend a lot of time, money, and attention on our outward appearance, but how much do we spend on the parts of us that nobody else can see? In the Bible, when Samuel went looking for a new King, God sent him to the house of a man with eight sons. When he got there, Samuel immediately saw Eliab -- tall, good looking, and strong -- and thought he was the man God was going to anoint to be King. But God warned Samuel that He wasn’t worried about which son looked like a King. God picked the son who had the heart of a king. 

David didn’t look much like royalty, but God could see beyond his outward appearance and see that David loved God, that he was strong and courageous, and that David loved God’s people. David was the perfect man for the job. 

God is more concerned about our hearts than anything else. There’s nothing wrong with taking care of your outward appearance, but make sure you’re spending some time working on the things on the inside too.

Pray: Dear God, thank you for looking beyond the things that everyone else sees. Show me the parts on the inside of me that need a makeover. Help me to focus more on my heart than on my outward appearance.  

Do: Spend some time thinking about your heart today. Think about why you do the things you do. Do you do good things for others to get attention? Come up with a list of things you can do for someone who could never thank you or pay you back, then do one of them.