God Does Know Our Hearts
By Tara Chapman
April 2008
KJV with italics included
“God knows my heart.”
“It’s the heart that matters.”
“God looks on the heart.”
“It’s about where our heart is.”
These are the various responses I’ve received over the last few years from professing Christians when I’ve explained to them that they were not worshiping God in the way He desires and commands. When I’ve shared the truth concerning how mainstream professing Christians are sinning by keeping Sunday as their weekly worship day and by keeping pagan holidays such as Christmas and Easter (as well as breaking other commandments), I commonly get one of these defensive replies concerning their hearts. They claim that they believe God thinks it’s okay for them to do it their way and that He is pleased with their wrong worship of Him, because they believe God sees that their heart is in the right place. I disagree.
Let’s get to the “heart” of the matter and see what the bible—God’s authoritative Word—has to say about the subject. The bible warns us twice that, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25), and “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the ETERNAL pondereth the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2, see also Prov. 22:12). We see here that God does search the hearts of persons. We also see that there are things men do that they think are right, but the truth is that those things lead to death—the second death in the lake of fire. Jeremiah 17:10 says, “I the ETERNAL search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (See also Rev. 2:23) The previous verse—verse 9—says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” This should come as a great warning—an alarm bell, if you will—that we cannot always trust our hearts. We cannot base our way of living on merely feelings and how we feel in the heart.
The reason why everyone is so deceived and that there are so many different brands of Christianity is that people base their beliefs on feelings rather than truth. What is truth? Psalm 119:142 says, “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Jesus said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” We must base our worship of God on His law—His commandments, not on our feelings and what we see as “right in our own eyes.” The bible says that, “all [of God’s] commandments are righteousness” (Psalm 119:172). So, the commandments of God’s law are both righteousness and truth. The opposite of righteousness is wickedness. While keeping God’s law is equated with righteousness and truth, breaking or forsaking God’s law is equated with wickedness and lying. Psalm 119:53 says, “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” Verse 155 of the same chapter says, “Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.” Verse 163 says, “I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.” Psalm 119:29 and 30a say, “Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth.” (Study also Ecc. 9:3; Prov. 11:20; Deut. 11:16; Zech. 7:12; Gen. 8:21; Isaiah 29:13; Obad. 1:3; Lev. 26:41)
Again, we can’t base the way we live solely on feelings of the deceitful heart. Many people say they love God, but it’s all based on feelings. A person who truly loves God keeps His commandments, which would include His Sabbath day and His feasts and holy days, rather than the pagan Sunday and the pagan holidays and feasts that the false professing “Christian” Catholic Church and the Protestants keep.
I John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Those that profess to be Christians and profess to love the Father and Christ but do not keep Their commandments are liars and worship them in vain:
I John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Sunday, Christmas, Easter, and others mainstream “Christian” days are the commandments of men taught as doctrines by the Catholic and Protestant whore churches.
Just saying we love God doesn’t mean we truly do. That’s not true love. The reason why there are so many divorces in modern culture is that people base love on feelings and the deceptions of the human heart. Real love sticks through trials and hardships. Real love serves. Real love forgives. Real love submits. Most marriages reach points in which one or both spouses don’t feel love toward the other spouse for a time. It seems that the majority decide to divorce at that point. That’s what happens when love is based on feelings only. When a person has true love in his or her heart, the person shows it by his or her actions toward the other person by actions, not by feelings only. Evidence has revealed that showing love in actions eventually brings back feelings of love as well.
In the same way that marriages will fail if based on exclusively feelings of love, a relationship with God will fail also if based solely on feelings. If a person does not keep God’s commandments, he or she will not inherit eternal life (Matt. 19:17; Mark 10:17,19; Luke 18:18-20; Luke 13:3; 2 Peter 3:9; Rev. 3:5; Psalm 119:155, etc.), not because keeping the law will save us, but because we are not offered the free gift of grace without first repenting of sin (transgression of the law—I John 3:4) and agreeing to keep the commandments.
What kind of heart does God desire?
Proverbs 3:1,3,5,7 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments…Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart…Trust in the ETERNAL with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding…Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the ETERNAL, and depart from evil.
Proverbs 6:20-21 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
Proverbs 7:1-3 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
Deut. 6:5-6And thou shalt love the ETERNAL thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.
Deut. 11:13,18 …ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the ETERNAL your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul…Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
I John 3:19-22 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
Deut. 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
I Kings 8:58,61 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers…Let your heart therefore be perfect with the ETERNAL our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
Proverbs 4:4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.
Deut. 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the ETERNAL thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Deut. 30:2, 10 And shalt return unto the ETERNAL thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul…If thou shalt hearken unto the voice ofthe ETERNAL thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the ETERNAL thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
I Kings 14:8 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the ETERNAL God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes (Note: David did what was right in whose eyes? God’s eyes and not his own, not what seemed right to himself, but what was right according to God’s law. ~TC)
II Chron. 34:31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the ETERNAL, to walk after the ETERNAL, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:10 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the ETERNAL, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Note: Nothing here about doing away with the law. Rather the new covenant comes with the promise of God’s Spirit begettal so that His law is written in our hearts. Jesus in Matt. 5:17 said that he did not come to abolish the law. Absolutely not! If He could have abolished the law, He would not have had to die to cover our transgressions of it.~TC)
Ezekiel 11:17-21 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD. (Note: This is a future prophecy, foretelling of the gathering of the tribes of Israel out of the nations after Jesus’ return to set up His Kingdom, those that will not be in the first resurrection, because obviously they are not keeping God’s commandments and do not have His Spirit and do not have the kind of heart God desires. Those who then still walk after the heart of detestable things and abominations will be punished accordingly. ~TC)
Joshua 22:5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the ETERNAL charged you, to love the ETERNAL your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
II Kings 23:3, 25 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the ETERNAL, to walk after the ETERNAL, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant…And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the ETERNAL with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the ETERNAL, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
Deut. 26:16 This day the ETERNAL thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. (Note: Again, the new covenant was prophesied to offer many God’s Spirit begettal [upon repentance and baptism] so that people would have God’s law written in their hearts.)
Deuteronomy 32:46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
II Chron. 31:21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
Job 22:22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
Romans 7:22 In my heart I take pleasure in the law of God. (Bible in Basic English translation)
II Corinthians 3: 2-3, 15 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart…Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (Note: Wow. Strong words here. People are still hardened in heart. Most people do not wish to have God’s law written in their hearts. They are still blinded, refusing to accept the truth. ~TC)
Deut. 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
Deut. 30:6 And the ETERNAL thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the ETERNAL thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Jeremiah 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the ETERNAL, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
King David is known as a man after God’s own heart:
I Samuel 13:4 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the ETERNAL hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the ETERNAL hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the ETERNAL commanded thee.
Acts 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
Let’s look at what David wrote about a HEART that is after God’s own HEART:
Psalms 119:1-3, 10, 32-36, 58, 69-70, 111-112, 145, 161 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the ETERNAL. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways…With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments…I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness…I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word…The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law…Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end…I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes…Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.
A person would do well to read the entire chapter of Psalm 119. It is curiously the LONGEST chapter written in the bible.
Let’s compare the wise at heart and the foolish at heart:
Ecclesiastes 10:2 A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left.
Proverbs 10:8 The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.
Again, a warning about trusting a carnal heart:
Proverbs 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
What is wisdom?
Psalm 111:10 The fear of the ETERNAL is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Who are the “pure in heart?”
I Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
(Truth is defined by Psalm 119:142 as: Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. See also Psalm 119:151; Daniel 9:13; Romans 2:20; Malachi 2:6; Nehemiah 9:13; I John 2:4
Psalm 19:7-8 The law of the ETERNAL is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the ETERNAL is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the ETERNAL are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the ETERNAL is pure, enlightening the eyes.
I conclude that the law of God is pure, and those who obey and rejoice in His law have pure hearts. Again, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” He also said:
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).
Those who do NOT have a pure heart and who do NOT keep God’s commandments will NOT see God and will NOT enter through the gates into the city.