The Pure Heart of God

As I said early in this writing that Charlie Fizer only covered the heart of man, but only touched on the heart of God briefly. I felt it would be good to look at the Heart of God in closing this writing. Charlie touched on the fact that God’s heart is eternal; His thoughts, emotions, and His will are all in the eternal state, which is something hard for us to wrap our minds around seeing we are locked into the realm of time. But as Charlie closed his last lesson it would be good for us to try to meditate on this thought.

The first time we see into God’s heart was in the emotions of him being grieved in his heart because of the evil of mankind back in Genesis 6:6. But when Noah offered up a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God after the flood God’s heart was pleased and he said, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.” Genesis 8:21

God knows our hearts and I believe God wants us to know His. As we start to look at God’s heart or into it to try to understand it, it reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. The story went like this.

There was a little boy who lived on a cove, inland some miles from the ocean. As he played on the beach building his sand castles and watching the surf coming in and going out with the tide, he always wondered where all this water was coming from. So as time went on and he got older he asked his mother if he could go up into the mountains that were around the cove he lived in. At first his mother did not want him to go but finally she allowed him to go a short ways up the mountain. When he arrived at the point that his mother allowed him to go he looked out towards the direction of the river that came into the cove. From where he was, the river and the cove looked so small and this made him think more about what was beyond what he could see.

When he came down from the mountain and was lying in his bed that night all he could think about was his trip up the mountain and how he wanted to go further up. As the passing of time; he was now a young man in his teens he talked his mother into letting him go to the top of the mountain where he could see way beyond the cove.

Well, as the story goes, he made it to the top and as he looked out over the vastness of the ocean all he could think about was how he would take a cup of water out of the river that fed into the cove thinking how maybe someday he would run out of water. He knew at that moment that this would never have happened.

The point of this story is that no matter how we look into God’s heart we will never run out of living water that flows from the heart of God. Call it love, compassion, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and so much more, but the fact is God’s heart is full of that and much much more. So in this section I am only going to scratch the surface of God’s heart. For us who have put our trust in God, Paul tells us in Romans 5:5 that, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” So to understand God’s heart to any degree we must belong to him and we must have the Holy Spirit in us. This has to be our starting point.

After hearing the three messages on man’s heart that Charlie taught it open my eyes to see something I had never seen before, if Christians are walking close to God and deep into his Word; following his leading and doing his will then they should be reflecting God’s heart to others in the world.

There is an article on the Internet entitle “God’s Word Reveals God’s Heart.” And in this article Paul Borthwick said after discussing the subject on being involved in global missions and in answer to the question, why do we get involved? He said his wife answered simply “We’re involved to reflect the character of God. Missions are God’s heart.” This is true, but if we want to reflect God’s heart to the lost world we need to know how to do it, and we have to be like King David and be men and women after God’s own heart.

If you really want to know God’s heart, then study the life of Jesus because it said this about him in John 1:14 NKJV

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

To know God’s heart, we need to know the heart of Christ who is God in the flesh. God has revealed his heart to us by revealing it in the person of Christ.

I mention before about the living water that flows from the heart of God. If we look at what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 he mentions this living water. Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you,’Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Christ is God and he can give living water to anyone who asks. If you read the whole store you will see that the woman brings many of the townspeople and many of them believe who he was when they said, “…we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” In order for them to know this, they had to have taken some of the living water they Christ was offering. And this came right from the heart of God.

I remember reading in the Old Testament years ago, “that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” And then reading in the New Testament “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Now we are taught that God is Love; which is very true, but God is also a just and fair God. And if we look deep into God’s heart we will see that He does not want anyone to perish but he want all of mankind to come to repentance, and one way to do this is to understand the fear of the Lord. Let me explain by asking you a question. Have you ever experience fear? And I mean real fear.

Without going into much detail I can remember being threaten with bodily harm and even death, and I had this fear come over me that affected my whole being. Now stop and think for a moment, if we don’t have that fear in our hearts that God’s justice requires a death penalty for our sin (we are to fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,) how will we ever come to repent of our sins and turn to God for forgiveness. God is just and the Justifier of anyone who has faith in Jesus. That is what is required of us to avoid God’s wrath. And remember it was poured out on his own son for our sake. Yes, if we look into God’s heart we will find love but we will find perfect justice also. They go hand and hand.

As I looked to see what makes up God’s heart, I find it is an Eternal heart, a pure and Holy heart, it is a heart without sin. It is full of love and compassion and overflowing with grace. It is full of Faithfulness, Light that is the brightness of His Eternal Glory, Wisdom, Mercies, and his mighty power. Man is selfish, God is selfless. God’s thoughts are always on others and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

One thing God did to all men; saved and unsaved is this: “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their (mankind) hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11.

If we Christians would learn to draw near to God He would draw near to us. I know there is much much more I could say about the heart of God, but I will finish this writing but quoting a hymn I love, and it tells the wonders of drawing near to the heart of God.

There is a place of quiet rest,

Near to the heart of God,

A place where sin cannot molest,

Near to the heart of God.

There is a place of comfort sweet,

Near to the heart of God,

A place where we our Savior meet,

Near to the heart of God.

There is a place of full release,

Near to the heart of God,

A place where all is joy and peace,

Near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer,

Sent from the heart of God,

Hold us who wait before Thee,

Near to the heart of God.