What God Sees

“The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (I Sam 16:7b) What does God see when He looks at a person? The HEART! Not the blood pumping muscle inside, but our motives, our compassion, our desires. What is in our heart is what He can use.

God amazes me with how he can use crummy situations and broken people for His glory. I think back to a man named Moses. Heard of him? Did you know he killed an Egyptian? Yet God used him to deliver His people from Egypt. Moses made a huge mistake, but God saw leadership and love in his heart. How about David? He commits adultery, which led to a child, which led to lies and ultimately murder. Did God discard him? Nope, he is called a “man after God’s own heart” in scripture. Peter, how about that Peter! Makes a statement Christ said He would build the church on, cuts off another man’s ear, swears eternal allegiance to Christ, denies Him hours later. Surely his heart was black and unusable by God, right? Not quite, just a few weeks after denying his Lord, Peter delivered one of the most powerful sermons in history. Saul? Well, you know his story and what he did to Christians. If not, read Acts and find out. Then you will also find out that Saul (later Paul) was the greatest evangelist in the history of Christianity.

Man would look at these men with murder, adultery, lies, assault with a deadly weapon, treason, persecutor of Christians and think they are burning in hell. God saw leaders, evangelists, hearts of love for God and people. God took some pretty tough situations and pretty bad decisions from men who were broken, cracked vessels and used them in a mighty way. But God can mend the broken vessel, with love, forgiveness, grace, mercy and compassion if the heart is there to serve.






I am firmly convinced God is not nearly concerned about where we've been as He is about where we are going. Man will rarely let you live down your past mistakes, Satan wants you to live in your past, but God says don't worry about the past forgiven sins. He has a plan for your future!!! Don’t let men define you by their cowardly actions and hurtful words. God defines you by what men cannot see, your heart.