The Lord Looks at the Heart
1 Samuel 16:7
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 man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Living in culture where "seeing is believing," it's sometimes hard to see good things that are not immediately apparent on the outside.
We live with our own viewpoints and judge the world and other with our own standards. But what often goes around comes right back around to haunt us. We compare and evaluate others but skirt the same scrutiny for ourselves. At times, the standards we use to measure others are the very ones we can't live up to and suffer as a result.
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There is more to beauty than meets the eye. But we like beautiful things-- beautiful Hollywood stars, beautiful cars, beautiful sights. While God did give man the capacity to find pleasure in this beauty, He didn't intend for man to only be captivated by outer beauty.
When the Lord was chosing a king to succeed Saul, what kind of standard did he use? He told the prophet Samuel to "not consider his appearance or his height." The Lord told him to look at the heart.
But if you look at God's first choice as King, Saul, he was a man who was "a head taller than anyone else." However, in the end, Saul disobeyed God.
God's standard is not on our level. What He sees inside the heart can be more beautiful than the outer appearance. The outer beauty pales in comparison to the inner beauty similar to how Shakespeare described Juliet's beauty as the sun which shines brighter than the light from a lamp. There is light emmitted from the lamp but a greater light shone from the sun.
What kind of standard do you live by? That of the outer appearance, the height, or that of the heart?
