There are seasons of life we go through where everything seems to go wrong. Even our efforts and plans turn out all wrong.
We know that our God is a loving and compassionate God. Even so, during these seasons, we may worry that God is disappointed in us. Our failed attempts at something good or our misguided efforts in an area may have caused a problem instead of a solution. Or maybe some of our words were taken the wrong way by someone else. All of these situations can weigh heavy on us.
Often times, people are troubled by their good intentions that didn’t work out quite right. The fear of God’s disappointment is very present.
In these different times and situations, the Bible has some comforting words for us that will hopefully help all of us to understand the ways of God a little better.
Proverbs 21:2 says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Those of us who are trying to live right with pure intentions will operate out of the sincerity of our hearts. Even so, we still make mistakes sometimes. It is comforting to know that God sees beyond our errors and looks at the intentions of our hearts.
In our daily walk with Jesus, keeping our hearts and intentions pure should be a number one priority. God isn’t looking for a show out of each of us. No, He wants genuine Christians who live for Him because we love Him. We aren’t out to impress others. We serveHim and serve others out of love.
When we look at the Pharisees during Jesus’ earthly ministry, they looked great. They made as how of their “service” to God. However,Jesus was not impressed by the show. He had strong words for them in Matthew 23:27: “Woe to you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.”
He was much more pleased with those who showed humility. 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us, “…For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but theLord looks on the heart.”
Our actions should definitely be an example of living right, with the Spirit of God guiding us. Even so, we are in a fleshly body that is going to mess up. We don’t need to let those moments define us, but we can rest in the assurance that God recognizes our humanity.
As we continue to do our best each day of our lives, let us remember Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
Trusting His Word as guidance for our actions will take us far. On those occasions we knowingly followed our flesh and things got messy, we need to repent and get back on our feet. And in those times we simply missed the leading of the Lord, we can rest in knowing that He sees our hearts, and always knows when our intentions are pure.
