God is far more interested in the state of your ‘engine’ – the state and workings of your heart – (your inner being) than on what is visible on the outside- the body.
I love the story depicting Samuel’s struggles as he went to anoint a king for Israel from the house of Jesse.
1 Samuel 16:1
And the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
It is interesting that God did not reveal the name of the particular son He had chosen to Samuel. Even though Samuel was a prophet he still walked in his limitations as a human being. Naturally he had the picture of how a king should look like in his mind, after all Saul was a tall, well-built man and it would only be fair for God to give them someone that looked similar, right?
5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
A novice car buyer may be enthralled and get carried away by the smooth and shining paint of a car presented to him, but a smart buyer will look beneath the hood and check out the state of the engine, start the vehicle and ask good questions to find out the general condition of the vehicle. Experts will argue that the most important part of the vehicle is the engine. When people judge by outward appearance alone, they miss out on God’s will and purpose because God does not judge like men do.
The key indicator of the state of your well-being as a believer is predicated on the state of your inner man. (Your heart – the way you function inside, your thought pattern and process).
“For as he thinks in his heart so is he:” Proverbs 23:7
4:23
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
If the hidden parts are in the best of conditions, the outer part will complement the total package and functionality of the vehicle or being. However a beautiful outer part with defective inner workings would eventually end up in the dump yard, useless and rusty.
It is my admonition that we consciously work on our inner parts.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus and you have made Him your savior and Lord then your spirit is regenerated and made alive in Christ. However you still have a lot of work to do on your mind (the seat of your will, emotion and intellect)
Romans 12: 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.…
One key teaching of Paul that addresses our character and depicts what is really important to God is in the book of 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 12:31 ‘Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way’.
1 Corinthians 13
- If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ……
Vs 13 “three things will endure Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”.
The yardstick with which to measure a sound inner man is the degree to which we genuinely live out the love of God.
How is love defined? What are the characteristics of Love? It all still boils down to how we think, process and act or react to events on a daily basis.
(To be Continued…)
Shalom
Olaolu Oyeyemi