Looking at the Heart

 

It’s easy to get caught up in how people come across to us—maybe they annoy us, rub us the wrong way, or something about them just doesn’t sit right. Sometimes this is discernment, but sometimes it’s just our flesh reacting. True discernment requires prayer, patience, and testing against God’s Word, not just our feelings.

 

Scripture reminds us that the heart is where both God speaks and where the enemy tries to attack (Proverbs 4:23). We must be careful not to label or judge based only on outward behavior or appearance. Remember David: the smallest, youngest shepherd boy, overlooked by everyone—including his own family. Yet God chose him to be king because, as He told Samuel, “For man looks at the outward appearance, but Adonai looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7, CJB).

 

When we take time to look past the surface and truly know someone—their story, their struggles, their pain—we often find both wounds that need healing and victories that can inspire us. Every person carries something deeper than what we see at first glance.

 

At the end of the day, Jesus gave us two great commandments that hold everything else together: Love Adonai your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37–39). If we walk in these two commands, everything else falls into place. Love first. See the heart. Let God do the judging.

 

- Rev Carlos Figueroa