THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Proverbs
21:1-5 The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever
he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the
heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than
sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. The
plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes
only to poverty.
The heart of a person is the inner prompt for his
words, actions and beliefs. Desires are formulated by the heart’s will to
control the world around them. Out of the will come actions and words to bring
into fruition the desire of your heart. If a person is selfish, the heart will
spring into action to bring about all which is desired by a person. Other
people merely become instruments to meet the heart’s desire.
God is still in control of the hearts of men. He
knows our hearts better than we do. The selfish and the generous hearts are
equally known to him. The King’s heart is weighed by God, it is known by Him.
God will guide the king based on his heart, whether good or bad, to God’s
destination. The generous heart will be guided as well to a place of God’s
choosing.
When we look upon our own heart we are not able to
see it as clearly as God does. Sin has clouded our vision of it. We see it like
we see the bottom of murky lake. We see an outline maybe but not the intricate
details. As sinners we may do good things, but we are also prone to doing evil
or sinful things. Yet we see our heart as good, through the murkiness of our
sin.