Knowing the Heart of God

For thousands of years, the Israelites long waited for the promised Savior that they were desperate for, but when He finally arrived, they nailed Him to a cross. The ones who resisted God and rejected their Messiah were very knowledgeable in the Mosaic law and religious traditions. But they did not know God’s heart. They had built up their expectation of their Savior as a God in their own image.

They didn’t expect their Savior to be the one fulfilling the law.

They didn’t expect their Savior to be the son of a humble carpenter.

They didn’t expect their Savior to be arriving into Jerusalem on a donkey.

They sure didn’t expect Him to have been conceived in the womb of an unwed teenage virgin and been born in a manger in the backwoods town of Bethlehem.

As I was studying the Gospels, reading about how so many missed out on the blessing of receiving Jesus as their Savior because they had blinded themselves of who He truly was, God pointed out to me that people often today resist Him in the same way. God shows up so often in our lives in ways that do not align up to our preconceived notions and expectations based on religiosity and “churchianity”; and because we are more focused on the traditions and culture of man than we are on the heart of God… we miss out.

God had highlighted some important areas of my life that He was moving in that He did not want me to miss out on because I had put Him in a box.

He said to me, “you will know it is I who is orchestrating such things because you will see my heart in it. You will see me.” At that precise moment, this exact verse of the song by Hillsong Worship, “So Will I” played:

“I can see your heart in everything you’ve done, every part designed in a work of art called LOVE.”

God is a supernatural, unconventional God, whose ways and thoughts are way beyond our own. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Man could not have conceived God bringing the Savior into the world through such a scandalous means.

Man could not have conceived our Savior to be a meek, humble, kind, lowly servant, rather than someone in a powerful political or royal position.

Man certainly could not have conceived the idea that our Savior had to be crucified by the hands of those in political power, for it was the shedding of His blood that would redeem the whole creation.

The ones who received Jesus and recognized Him as their God were the ones who were intimate with God and knew His heart. They might not have been well-versed in the law of Moses or followed the law straight and narrowly- in fact, many consisted of tax collectors, prostitutes, and drunkards- BUT they had a hunger for righteousness and a thirst for the living water that they knew only Jesus could offer them.

Let us not let our faith be limited by placing our vast, infinite God in such a restricted box. Let us not be like the Pharisees who have missed out on experiencing Him because of our preconceived ideas that the church has indoctrinated us with. Let not our pride in theology be greater than our desire for pursuing to know the heart of God.

How do we know His heart? We know God’s heart through His written word, through His character, through His faithfulness, and through His love that He demonstrated to us by leaving His throne to come down to earth, putting on flesh, and sacrificing Himself for the sake of sinners being made new.