Getting to the heart of the situation is always useful. Have you ever felt like when talking to someone, all you are getting are superficialities and not really the important issues. Maybe you’ve known someone a long time, but in reality have a sense that you really don’t know them at all. You really don’t know who they really are deep down inside. Or as the saying goes, “what makes them tick,” meaning, what motivates them to act in certain ways.
Proverbs has lots to say about the heart. Chapter 15 is no exception as the following reveals:
7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge,
but the hearts of fools are not upright.
11 Death and Destruction lie open before the Lord—
how much more do human hearts!
13 A happy heart makes the face cheerful,
but heartache crushes the spirit.
14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.
15 All the days of the oppressed are wretched,
but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.
28 The heart of the righteous weighs its answers,
but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.
30 Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart,
and good news gives health to the bones.
There is a beautiful story in the Gospel of John revealing the amazing truth that God knows what’s in our hearts, even if we don’t, and he is able to turn our lives around as he brings healing and understanding to us. You can read the full story in John 4:4-42, but here are a few excerpts:
Jesus was travelling with his disciples and they came to a town in Samaria called Sychar …Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet…
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” …
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” …
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
One of the books I read in my studies in the Gospel of John some years ago, was, ‘The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John’ by William Barclay. Concerning this particular story, Barclay says:
“The Samaritan woman was staggered by Christ’s ability to see into her utmost being. She was amazed at his intimate knowledge of the human heart, and of her heart in particular…There are no wrappings or disguises which are proof against the gaze of Christ. It is his power to see into the depths of the human heart. It is not that he sees only the evil there. He sees also the sleeping hero in the soul of every man. He is like the surgeon who sees the diseased thing, but who also sees the health which will follow when the evil thing is taken away.”
No wonder the Proverbs say,
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done? (Proverbs 24:12)
Then,
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)
Allow Him today to be like that “surgeon who sees the diseased thing, but who also sees the health which will follow when the evil thing is taken away.” Then allow Him to do that work of grace and mercy in your heart today. Read 1 John 1:5-10 and believe!
And remember that the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)
Worship and Wisdom - Psalms and Proverbs 