God Knows My Heart

 

Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, God knows my heart”? Usually, this is said when you speak to them about something in the Bible which they aren’t doing. So in response to that, you get this phrase.

 

For instance, in regard to salvation have you ever heard, “Yes, I believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but I don’t have to do it the way the Bible says. I’ll do it my way.”

 

What’s the result of this? According to Jesus, hell:

 

Matthew 10:32-33:

 

"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.

33"But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

 

 

Or how about, “Yes, I know tithing is commanded (in the Old Testament, only) but I can’t afford it right now. After all, God knows my heart.

 

Yet God said:

 

 Malachi 3:6-12 "For I, Yahweh, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

7"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says Yahweh of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?' 

8"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and offerings. 

9"You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!

10"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

11"Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says Yahweh of hosts.

12"And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land," says Yahweh of hosts.

 

One can ignore the instructions of God to their own peril or obey it to receive the promised blessings.

 

How about this one, “Yes, I know the Sabbath is Saturday, but I keep Sunday. After all, God knows my heart.”

 

But God said:

 

 Exodus 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

 

The church says that it was changed to Sunday. I challenge you to find any New Testament Scripture supporting that; it’s not there. If you want to investigate it, just do an internet search on the Sabbath being changed to Sunday. You’ll find that scholars from every denomination acknowledge that men made the change, not God. Does the New Testament support a Saturday Sabbath? Let’s see.

 

Here are New Testament Scriptures showing that Jesus and the disciples kept the 7th day Sabbath God ordained in the Old Testament:

 

 Luke 4:16 And He (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

 

Luke 13:10 And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

 

Luke 23:54 And it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

 

Luke 23:56 And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

 

John 5:16 And for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

 

(Since Jesus [Y'shua] was without sin, He could not have been disobeying the “law” of Moses, after all, as the “Word of God,” He was its author! The contention was over Him not upholding the additions to the “law” made by the rabbis.)

 

John 7:23 "If a man receives circumcision on Sabbath that the Law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on Sabbath?

 

They are obviously discussing the same Sabbath as is in the Old Testament.

 

Acts 13:14 But going on from Perga, they (Paul & his companions) arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

 

Acts 13:42 And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

 

Acts 13:44 And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God.

 

Acts 15:21 "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

 

Acts 16:13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.

 

Hebrews 4:9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

 

When we speak to people about keeping the instructions of God, the torah commonly called “the law” people tell us that they don’t have to; they’re free from the law and, after all, God knows their heart.

 

However, these New Testament believers have missed something in the NEW Testament:

 

1 John 2:4-7:

 

The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

6the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. 

7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

 

When John wrote this, THERE WAS NO NEW TESTAMENT!! It was not compiled until around 135 A.D. Therefore, the commandments to which he is referring are the same ones that Jesus kept. If we are to walk as Jesus walked (v6) then we must keep the torah commandments just as He did. John even tells us that what he is saying dates back to the beginning! What is the beginning? The torah: THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE.

 

So when someone says to us, “God knows my heart” what that person is really saying is, I have an excuse for disobedience. However, what they may not know, is that God addressed this issues in His word:

 

Jeremiah 17:9-10:

 

"The heart is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 

10"I, Yahweh, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.

 

God knows the heart is rebellious and “desperately sick;” He said so. The expression “God knows my heart,” is simply a statement: “I’ll do it my way.”

 

God said:

 

Proverbs 14:12 12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

 

Proverbs 16:25 25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

 

So, let us learn that “God knows my heart” is not proof of right doing, but of wrong doing. And let us be wise enough to heed the counsel in the Word of God and change our ways and our hearts with it. Let us begin to keep the instructions of God, whether from the torah, whether from Malachi (tithing) or from the New Testament.

God hasn’t changed; His instructions still stand, no matter in what part of the Bible you find them. (For more info on this, see The Law Has Been Done Away)

 

God DOES know our hearts. The problem is, we don’t.

 

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

 

It is our hope that you will heed the counsel of God in this article.