It's The Heart That Counts

(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) – Romans 2:13-15

Today’s Reading: Psalms 51-53; Romans 2

This is one of the more fascinating things in the Bible.

I had a conversation with some folks recently about the whole Christianity, Jesus, salvation thing. They asked me what the Bible says about someone has never heard of Jesus? What then? Do they go to hell? That doesn’t seem right.

Well… read the passage above…. There’s your answer.

But what is more interesting to me is this notion that we are judged by what is in our hearts. It is whether or not someone shows the work of the law in their hearts, not what they say or do.

And as we’ve discussed before the law is very simple: love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

It is vey disappointing when we have people in our lives that say one thing and consistently act totally differently. Sure they might get over on folks in the beginning but reputations are not built by words. They are built by deeds. And not just deeds, but the consistent patterns that lie in the foundation of our actions.

These actions are dictated by our hearts. An angry and bitter person will only act nice for so long before that bitterness seeps out of its hiding place.

So it seems to me that the key here is to work on our hearts. If we look within and endeavor to grow in love and forgiveness for all of those around us, something magnificent will happen. Each decision to let go of the pain that we feel inside will result in an outpouring of love that will be there for the world to see through our actions.

The less pain we hold on to, the more love we can share.

This is one of the greatest challenges of life; forgiving when folks don’t deserve it, letting go without apology, trusting that the more we give love to the world, the more will come back to us.

It just takes that leap of faith to take that first courageous step.

So next time that you are struggling to forgive someone that has hurt you remember this. The quicker we are to forgive others, the more we will be able to give love. And in the giving of that love we in turn will receive more than we can imagine.