God Is Love, So … IT’S ALL ABOUT HEART

God Is Love, So … IT’S ALL ABOUT HEART

1 Chronicles 28:9 – “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father David, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of our thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.” * Psalm 7:9 – “The righteous God tests the hearts and minds.” * Romans 8:27 – “He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” * Revelation 2:23 – “I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your works.” * Psalm 44:21 – “God knows the secrets of the heart.”

Genesis 6:5 – “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually; so the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the Earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” * Psalm 14:3 – “They have all turned aside. All have become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one.” [JHK Note: Paul reiterates this sad truth in Romans 3:10-12.]

Deuteronomy 4:29 – “You will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

1 Samuel 10:9 – “So it was, when Saul turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him a new heart.” * 1 Samuel 13:13-14 – “Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord .. so the Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart.” * 1 Kings 11:1-4 – “But King Solomon loved many foreign women .. and when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods [i.e., worthless idols of wood, of stone, of metal] ..; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.” * Exodus 4:21 – “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let you go.” [JHK Note: God does this ten times up to Exodus 14:17.]

Leviticus 19:17-18 – “You shall not hate your brother in your heart. .. Love your neighbor as yourself.” * Matthew 5:22 – “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” [JHK Note: Cain was angry with Abel without a cause in Genesis 4.] * Psalm 25:3 – “Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.” * Proverbs 24:28 – Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause.” * Psalm 35:7 – “Without cause, they have hidden their net for me in a pit.”

Psalm 12:2 – “Everyone speaks idly [gossips] with his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips and a double heart.”

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” * Psalm 1:1-2 – “Blessed is the man .. whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”

Psalm 22:28 – “The kingdom is the Lord’s and He rules over the nations.” * Psalm 33:12 & 20-21 – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. .. Our soul waits for the Lord. .. Our heart shall rejoice in Him.” *  Psalm 50:12 – “The world is Mine and all its fullness.” * Psalm 47:2 – “The Lord Most High is awesome!  He is a great King over all the Earth.” * Psalm 24:1 – “The Earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” * In Job 38-39-40-41, God reveals His omnipotence and boundless creativity.

Daniel 4:17 & 32 – “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He chooses, and sets over it the lowest of men.” [JHK Note: This is the great lesson of the Book of Daniel. Three very different kings with very different hearts test Daniel and his friends.]

In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar erects a huge image of gold and was “full of fury” when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refuse to bow down, so he has them thrown into a fiery furnace, hoping that they will be burned to a crisp because of their insubordination. He is astounded at what happens and exclaims, “Look! I see four men loose, walking about in the midst of the fire! They are not hurt, and the fourth looks like the Son of God!” Because they survive, Nebuchadnezzar has a temporary change of heart, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego” and making a decree that “anyone who speaks amiss against” their God “shall be cut in pieces. .. Then the king promoted” the three friends.

Daniel 4 begins with Nebuchadnezzar extoling the greatness of God: “I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs and how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.” Nebuchadnezzar has a second dream with an ominous interpretation; and after a year, his heart is puffed up in pride, so that he forgets God and takes all credit for himself, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” So his mind is reduced to that of a beast. He crawls about and eats grass for seven years until he realizes that God is sovereign: “I lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me! Then I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever.”

Daniel 5 tells the sad story of Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, who had no thought of the majesty and sovereignty of God and holds a great feast with his cohorts and concubines, commanding that the golden chalices taken from God’s temple built by Solomon be brought for their carousing. Daniel interprets the ominous handwriting on the wall that Belshazzar’s heart has “been weighed in the balances and found wanting,” so “that very night” he was slain and his kingdom “divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”

Daniel 6 depicts the early years of Darius, king of the Medes, who promotes Daniel, who “distinguished himself above the three governors and 127 satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him.” However, all the others are insanely jealous of Daniel’s success and elevation, so they conspire against him to have him thrown into a den of lions. Darius respects Daniel and is sad at this turn of events, but rejoices when Daniel survives the night.