I Chronicles 28:9 Where is your Heart?

 The idea of God is both scary and reassuring.

 It’s scary in the sense that He knows every thought of our heart.

It’s reassuring, because He knows every thought of our heart.

The same fire that can burn your house down can cook your food and warm your house in winter.

In I Chronicles 28, King David is approaching death, and he is addressing the nation and his son Solomon, who will replace him on the throne. 

In verse 9, David tells him:  As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your fathers and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts.  If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

All too often Christians can feel like their relationship with God changes constantly, depending on what we are doing, have done, or will do.  I know I carried for years the sense that I had failed God through choices I had made.  My salvation wasn’t jeopardized, but if God is disappointed with me, then that had to have had an effect on things.  Right?

But David’s words to Solomon say something different.

God knows every intent of our thoughts.  The question is whether we are seeking God in our lives or forsaking Him.  That may sound extreme, but the direction of your life is either going toward God or away from God.  We may think we are doing neither, just staying even, but in the myriad of choices that we make every day, our lives are never staying still.

David says that if you seek Him, He will let you find Him.  Seeking God or forsaking Him are not like leaves blowing in the wind, going all over the place.  Either we want God or we don’t. 

Because God knows you so well, He is never surprised by things you do.  So even in those times when you feel like you are doing really well, He is quite aware of what’s coming ahead, like when Jesus told Peter ahead of time that Peter would deny Him. 

Jesus knew the intent of the thoughts of his heart, and that was just a bump in the road.  When we realize that God knows all the intents of our thoughts, we realize it’s not the particular actions that need concern us but the direction of our heart.  It’s not the times we fall that matter so much, but the direction of our steps.