Daily Bible Verses for 3/6/2016

Bible Verse
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice [i.e. good works].

Reading Notes
God knows our hearts and our thoughts, and God is looking for those who have a heart in love with Him. There is nothing hidden from our Creator. There are no activities we can perform where God does not know the true motive behind them. The Bible tells us, “He has numbered the very hairs of our head”, so how can we then hide our true thoughts, intents and desires from God? What matters most to God is the condition of our hearts. We know that all sin is rebellion against God, no matter how small. But what we may not realize is at the center of all sin is a heart condition. Our sin stems from the desires of our heart. Those desires which spawn from our sin nature, cause us to sin and rebel against God, all of which comes from a spirit which is dead in trespasses and sins.

Our emotions and our actions take seed in the soil of our hearts before they ever grow into real desires and bloom into actions. Therefore, what matters most is what type of soil we have sown into the fabric of our hearts. Our actions harvested from a heart devoid of love for God and genuine concern for others, a heart filled with love for ourselves, can never produce works pleasing to God. Instead, it produces works offensive to our Lord and Savior. Because they are not done out of love; but rather out of a desire for self-gain, praise and recognition from others. We can never forget, religion was never meant to show others how righteous we are; but was meant to praise and honor God and show the love of God to others. Helping them to understand how much God loves, how much God has sacrificed for them and how awesome our God is! Moreover, to be called a child of God, means to have a heart in love with Christ Jesus our Lord, and to love Jesus and others, more than we love ourselves.