I am drawn to people who are down-to-earth and sincere. People who can talk honestly about the circumstances in their lives, without adding special effects to make themselves appear better or smarter than they really are. People who leave you feeling that you have connected to a real human heart, instead of to a clever mind.
I watch very little television for this very reason. It is very difficult to find even a news channel that is not promoting looks and a theatrical personality. Then Hollywood calls shows ‘Reality’, when everyone is totally conscious of the camera focused on them 24/7. This is anything but ‘real’ life. Then you have the commercials that scream at you as though that is going to make you want to go out and buy their products.
No, just give me a good book and my smartphone. I can surf a number of sites to get the ‘real’ take on the actual story, in far less time than it takes to concentrate on what the TV newscaster is trying to say in 30 seconds, while entertaining us and the rest of the staff in the newsroom with their cuteness and cleverness. I can travel to all points of the globe in a few hours with a good author, learning something new while tuning out the noise of the world, and guess what? No Screaming Commercials!
When I converse with you, I want to connect with your heart to learn ‘how and why’ you feel the way you do about what you are saying to me. I don’t need all the embellishments that I have to decipher continually whether or not that part of the story is true or not. I don’t need the big and clever sounding words that leave you feeling superior to me, while leaving me distracted from what your heart is trying ‘not’ to tell me. As Joe Friday said, “Just the Facts Ma’am!”
The Good News Translation of Proverbs 10:19 gets the translation right about speaking many words: “The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet.” Just the facts, Ma’am!
The New Living Translation of Luke 6:45 gives us the source of our words. They come from our hearts. “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
Jesus teaches us to pray without vain repetitions. Saying something over and over doesn’t guarantee our being heard; but saying it, or praying it, from the heart, goes straight to the Father’s heart. (Matthew 6:7,8)
Jesus then goes on to teach us how to pray, using the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Notice how short and to the point this prayer is. It covers all the necessary elements of prayer, as well as all the necessary areas of our lives, without embellishments and without using big words. Why say ‘Brobdingnagian’, when all we need to say is ‘gigantic’.
It seems that David must have been a man who desired more quiet time with nature and his Creator, than with the noise and bustle of the crowds. God calls David ‘a man after His own heart.’ That is quite a compliment for David from his Maker.
What made David a man after God’s heart?
-David was honest about his humanity, sins, faults and shortcomings.
-He sought God for forgiveness and wisdom, several times each day.
-He said his heart ‘panted’ after God as a deer pants after a waterbrook.
-He was after a relationship with His Father.
-He saw the beauty and power of God in all of creation around him.
-He gave thanks to God for all blessings, in good times and bad, with words in song and praise.
-He continually tried to rule Israel with what was just before Jehovah.
-He always reminded God of Israel’s need for mercy and salvation, and that they were God’s people who needed protection from their enemies.
If we look at the life of Jesus Christ, together with the life of David, we begin to see that God is after honesty about our current heart conditions, more than He is about trying to impress Him with form and ritual. He already sees all and knows all. There is nothing that we can do or say or think that He doesn’t already know about. He has all knowledge, and is everywhere present at the same time. He is God. The last thing He wants is for us is to try to convince Him that we didn’t sin, or justification for the sin, as in ‘the devil made me do it!’ He already knows what you did, and when and how you did it. He knows we are all sinners and are in need of a savior.
David showed that he understood this as he wrote the words of Psalm 32. “I acknowledge ‘my’ ‘sin’ ‘unto thee’, and ‘mine’ ‘iniquity’ I have not ‘hid’. I said, I will ‘confess’ ‘my’ ‘transgressions’ ‘unto the Lord’; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
Jesus was heard by His Father because Jesus abode in His Father’s love by obeying His commandments. Jesus forgave the woman at the well and the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned, for their sincerity and willingness to leave their old lifestyles and follow His teachings. Jesus is a God of Mercy, but He does ask us to quit the sins that He forgives us of.
Jesus was honest with His Father about not wanting to suffer a Roman Crucifixion. He sincerely acknowledged this in the garden in intense prayer. After three requests for the crucifixion to be removed, He submitted His will and walked to the cross. No Roman ruler or soldier took His life from Him. The Jews didn’t kill Him. He laid down His life willingly for each of us, and He arose of His own power, as the Son of God, from the grave. He forever lives to make intercession for us as our High Priest at the right hand of the Father. We just need to be honest in acknowledging our sins and needs. He will forgive the sin, supply the need, and remove the stain from the heart, as we obey His teachings.
There are a lot of bruised, broken, wounded souls around us on this planet. We need to be praying for them each and every day that God will reveal His love and mercy to them in a personal way. He wants to restore and heal and deliver each one from bondage and darkness and the lies of false teachers. These confused souls are oppressed and crying out for Truth and inner satisfaction. A satisfaction and fulfillment that this carnal world cannot provide for a spiritual soul. Those who do believe, and have experienced Christ in a personal New Birth, need to rise up to fill the gap between them and their God, by going down onto their knees and asking for God’s mercy and salvation for each one.
This is the hour that all superfluity must be laid aside. We can’t impress God. We can’t fool God. He is God and He is our judge. He is a merciful judge who will forgive all who will be sincere about the stains of their hearts and ask Him for Mercy and Forgiveness in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
