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Matthew 12:34-37
In Matthew 12:34 Jesus scolds the Pharisees for the words they said against Him in Matthew 12:24 as they accused Him of being Satan, or at the very least, being a follower of Satan. The words that the Pharisees spoke were proof that they had evil hearts. Jesus states in Matthew 12:35-37, (NKJV), “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
This is an example that the heart is the center of man’s thoughts and words.
The Bible teaches us that a person’s heart is the center of his or her being and that the heart controls the mind and the words that a person speaks. As God led the Prophet Samuel to find a new king for the nation of Israel, He declared in 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV) to Samuel as the eldest of the sons of Jesse passed before him, “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.’” As the LORD continued to pass over the older sons of Jesse, He was passing over the ways of man as tradition would make the older son king, but the LORD was not seeking the ways of man but the purity of the heart of the man. This is why the LORD chose David to be king – because he had a heart that was seeking the ways of God, not the ways of man. That is the person in which God continues to seek today.
Dear LORD,
Please give us all hearts that sincerely, obediently, and faithfully seek Your ways for our lives, just as did the young shepherd boy David whom You chose to lead Your people Israel. Please help us to see that the ways of man are evil, but Your ways are good and just, that we would seek You LORD with all our heart. In Jesus name I pray, amen.