And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6: 6 NKJV
Growing up in a single parent home for much of my younger years, you would think that I would have been a terror for my mother to deal with. Well, since many of the archives are still classified, I will say that I had my moments for sure. One of those moments occurred after school one October day. I remember the time of year because it was near to my birthday. Now, growing up I hung out with a few...questionable kids. This day, as my mother and I walked through a local store, I decided to procure a early birthday gift without my mom, or the store clerks knowledge. It wasn't malicious in nature at all, as I cried all the way home knowing how it would make my mom feel. Yes, she marched me back to the store to apologize to the clerk and return the item, but I was more saddened by how it made her feel. In fact, there were many times I would stop and think about what I was about to do weighing it against how my mother would feel about what I had done. Believe me, this is a powerful feeling. I was thinking on this the other day as I was contemplating the many of us, myself included, carry with us. That being using the Lords name in vain. Now, as a Christian you might not put much stock in this as a bad behavior, but do you think that God feels the same way? Do you think that God simply laughs it off each and every time one of His children uses His holy name in vain? I don't think so. As I wrestle with my own words used in times of anger and frustration, I need to weigh it against how God feels in His heart when I do these things. Wait wait wait...God has a heart? Yes! This is revealed to us through scripture. In Genesis 6, we're told that the Lord was grieved in His heart over the behaviors of man He created {Genesis 6:6}. We are created in His very image, therefore we have a heart as well {Genesis 1:27}. You could say that Gods heart...is our one true heart.
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galatians 2: 20 NKJV
In order to see the Lords heart as our one true heart we first need to understand how it is that God...could be in us. In fact, some Christians might very well turn their backs to this idea as false teaching. The apostle Paul speaks to the idea of Christ Jesus in him in Galatians. It is Paul who speaks to Christ Jesus in him {Galatians 2:20}. This wasn't simply a passing feeling for Paul, for he knew from personal experience the life changing presence of Jesus. It was Jesus Himself whom Saul met on that road to Damascus. It was Jesus who led Saul into the city where his life transformation began. I trust that Paul knows of what he speaks. Let us say for all intents and purposes that what Paul has spoken to us is true. That Christ Jesus indeed lives in us. That the former life we once had was put to death on the cross of Christ {Romans 6:6}. Now all that is left in us...is Jesus. It is His heart which is now our own. The true heart. Knowing this, how do you feel when you feel your behaviors have fallen short? Are you worried about what others around you might think? Or, following His true heart in you, are you sad when the heart of the Lord is grieved? Do you regret those moments when God was hurt over what we've done? I have done some serious contemplating of this. I would not say that we need to change, as that would mean that we need to change from being Jesus. That simply isn't true. I believe that what we need to do is to realize the heart of the Lord which each of us has within us. Once we do that, we will be more in tune with the life He desires for us.
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives. He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
~Scott~
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