Changing the Heart

I am going to take a break from the "Insight series" as this week I am a little contemplative.  Every year around Father's day I begin the process of looking inward and evaluating myself and who I am in light of who God created me to be.  It is interesting that when we do this, we tend to look at the superficial things.  "How do I look?"  "How well am I liked?"  "Have I achieved the level of success that I desire?"  I am reminded in these moments that ultimately in the eyes of God, none of these things matter in the slightest.  This is why 1 Samuel 16:7 is so interesting.

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Apparently there is a fundamental difference between how we see others and ourselves and how God sees us.  And here we are told what the fundamental difference is - God sees the heart.  Man sees the outward. 

This is not really surprising when we think about it, after all, the only heart I have any ability to truly know anything about is my own.  I cannot see your heart.  You cannot see mine.  We lack the capacity to see to the inner man and even our insight into our own inner self is skewed.  But there is no such lack in God.  In fact, it clearly says that God looks past the outward appearance to see what is truly there.  This thought is echoed in many ways in the Scriptures.  God does not want mere outward conformity, he wants heart change and inner change. 

So at the end of the day, if I am more concerned with my outward appearance than my inner appearance, it is a fairly good sign that I am more concerned with the will of other people in my lives than I am with what God wants of me.  If I am more concerned with how my inner man looks, than I am valuing what God says about me more than what people around me say.  May we all seek to please God first and foremost and worry a little less about the outward appearance and work on allowing God to change our hearts.