Inside the Heart

 

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert to humble and test you in order to make known what was in your heart…” – Deuteronomy 8:2 (ISV)

What Moses was saying to the sojourning Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:2 is still relevant to us today.

We too are on a sojourn and though our desert experience may not be as long as forty years that does not make it less significant.

Times may have changed but human nature remains the same and so have God’s methods of testing our mettle. He has put man through the same process for eons in order to reveal what’s inside the heart.

Understand that when God speaks about the heart, He is not speaking about the physical heart but is referring to a much deeper place beyond our conscious thoughts – the inner part of our being. This is what God looks at, this is what He sees.

…the Lord said to Samuel, “…God doesn’t look at things like humans do. Humans see only what is visible to the eyes, but the Lord sees into the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7 (CEB)

You may be beautiful on the outside, but it’s what’s inside you that matters to God.

Paying attention to your outward appearance while neglecting your inner being is opposite to how God does things. He works from the inside out, to clean your heart and renew your spirit aright (see Psalm 51:10) – a process that uncovers your motives, and reveals your true intentions which are hidden deep inside the heart. It’s an integral and necessary part of your new-birth journey.

Jesus used the concept of vessels to demonstrate this truth to the Pharisees,

“…you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup or plate, while your secret hearts are full of greed and selfishness.” – Luke 11:39 (WNT)

Also comparing them to whitewashed tombs, Jesus told them that they “…look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of rottenness. For you appear like good men on the outside—but inside you are a mass of pretense and wickedness.” – Matthew 23:27 (Phillips)

Clearly God already knows what’s inside the heart (also see 1 Kings 8:39; Psalm 44:21), therefore it’s obvious that revealing what’s inside it is not for His benefit but for ours. We often believe that we know ourselves so well but God knows us better. He understands just how deceitful the heart is and what it takes to purify it (see Jeremiah 17:9; Acts 15:9). 

If you are to properly progress along this spiritual journey, your heart needs to respond to God. God speaks to the heart.

“…and speak tenderly to her heart” (Hosea 2:14 CEB)

But if your inner being is filled with greed, selfishness, dead stuff, all kinds of rottenness, pretense, wickedness and a whole host of other ungodly motivations, there’s no way that you will be able to discern the promptings of God.

So, a heart cleansing is required, and when it comes to creating a clean heart, God is not averse to pushing you to your limits to get the job done. 

God will allow you to fall on hard times, if that’s what it takes.

God will even bring you to the point of going hungry so that you’d learn that life is not only about the physical but more so the spiritual.

God will humble you and test you until you diligently follow His instruction, His every Word, despite all else saying otherwise.

It’s about your reaching a state of complete and utter dependence on God in every way and for everything. The sojourning Israelites failed to do so and not only did they remain in the wilderness forty years, they never received the Promise.

Beloved, I know that you do not want to suffer the same fate…I surely don’t. 

Listen, you think you know what’s inside your heart, but you really don’t because the heart so easily deceives, and no-one truly understands it but God.

God looks deep inside your heart, and He sees all the filth that needs to be removed. Remember though that God will never impose Himself upon you, you must be willing to allow Him to search the inward parts of your being, your very soul, to “probe the heart” (Jeremiah 17:10) and examine it (Revelation 2:23), so that He can re-create you from inside the heart.

And beloved, your heart made new, will directly affect your outward appearance, for true beauty comes from inside the heart.

Amen†

Shelley Johnson “Inside the Heart” © 2016 revisited August 9, 2025