“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.” (Proverbs 16:2)
Whenever Michele helped her mom clean the house, she always had to do the dusting. She thought dusting was a boring job, and she wanted to finish it as soon as possible. She would rub the dustrag quickly over the piano and the coffee table and the windowsills, and she would think, “This room looks pretty good.” But then Michele’s mom would come and inspect her work. Sometimes when Mom ran her finger over the piano or a table, she picked up a yucky layer of dust Michele had missed! Even though the room looked clean to Michele, her mom knew exactly how to test her dusting skills. Too often, she would find that Michele had not done a very thorough job at all.
Proverbs 16:2 tells us that we tend to look at our own lives and think that they are “clean.” To ourselves, we look pretty good, especially if we are staying out of big trouble and even doing nice things once in a while. But God looks inside of us and sees what is really there. He sees our spirits–our attitudes, our feelings about what we are doing, and our motives (the reasons we do things). Sometimes we might be obeying Him on the outside, but on the inside we are angry or bitter. Or we might be obeying Him for the wrong reasons–to make people like us or to win the prize for saying the most verses. God wants us to serve and worship Him not for our selfish reasons, but because we love Him and owe Him everything.
How does your heart measure up to God’s test? Is it really “clean” in His eyes? Or does He find layers of “dust” in your heart–wrong attitudes and motives? If He does, there is good news. His Son, Jesus Christ, is the Cleanser of impure hearts.
God sees my inner attitudes and motives, not just my outward actions.
My Response:
» Has God pointed out sinful attitudes or wrong motives in my heart?
» Have I asked Him to cleanse me of these sins?