Tuesday, June 16, 2015

"His Gaze Upon the Heart"


    When God looks upon His trusting children in the Lord Jesus Christ, what does He first see?  The Bible progressively illuminates this vital matter concerning our Lord's perspective.

    "The Lord looketh on the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).  First, we discover that our Heavenly Father directs His primary gaze not upon us, but within us.

    "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23).  We then learn that the heart comprises the central component of our being, the source from which all human realities of spirituality, morality, love, life, and relationship flow.  Thus, the God who "looketh upon the heart" sees into the very essence of us.

    "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Finally, and most importantly, our Father sees the Spirit of His Son in our hearts, united unto our own spirits through the new birth.  "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17).  God gazes upon who we most deeply are, seeing us as "in Christ" and seeing "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (I Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 1:27).  Indeed, the One whose eyes pierce to the very heart of all things first looks upon the results of His grace as He looks upon and within us.  "Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people" (II Corinthians 6:16).  

    Of course, God does not overlook or fail to see the entirety of our being and our ways.  He relates to us accordingly, affirming and blessing those thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds that proceed from the indwelling Spirit of Christ, and dealing with us as a faithful Father in matters of waywardness.  "To be spiritually minded is life and peace… Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Romans 8:6; Hebrews 12:6).  Still, His primary gaze never wavers from the heart, wherein the Spirit of His Son dwells, and wherein He sees the "new creature" He birthed when we believed, "created in righteousness and true holiness" (II Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24).  

    We must join our Father in His gaze upon the heart.  "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).  Without minimizing the importance of the fruits of our lives, we nevertheless affirm the root of grace within, namely, the Holy Spirit and the new person we are as united to Him.  Such remembrance and reckoning makes it far more likely that we will bear "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:11).  Indeed, if we fail to see and affirm that which our Lord sees and affirms, we walk in darkness rather than His glorious light.  He looks upon the heart, He sees within, and beholds the Spirit of His Son united by grace to our own spirits.  Let us join Him in His gaze, His gaze upon the heart.

"Now are ye light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light."
(Ephesians 5:8)

Weekly Memory Verse
    Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.  He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
(John 6:35)    

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