SCRIPTURE: Matthew 15
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. [Matthew 15:19] This chapter contains an interesting mix of stories: the confrontation with the Jewish leaders, the gentile woman, the many people coming to be healed, and the second miraculous meal. The issue that arises in my mind is what really matters to God?
The religious leaders were all worked up about religious rituals, but the Lord is concerned about the heart. The Gentile woman does not belong to the ‘chosen nation’, yet she demonstrates amazing faith, and the Lord blesses her for it by healing her daughter. The masses come to be healed physically, but did they also discover the Healer; more important than being healed is knowing the Healer. The masses are miraculously fed by Jesus, but did they really meet the Feeder; more important than being fed is knowing the Feeder [see John 6:26-29].
What matters is the heart. A healthy body with a sick heart will not help anyone. Neither will a full stomach with an empty heart. Neither will a ritualistic purity with an impure heart (Jesus described them as white-washed tombs, clean on the outside but full of death on the inside). This Gentile woman was not Jewish, did not follow the Law, and was probably sinful in many ways – but her heart response to Jesus was right on!
God looks at what is going on inside of us. He sees that the spiritual center is the real problem. Our God-less, sin- and self-filled hearts are sick, empty, impure, and the result is sick, empty and impure lives. All the bad stuff that we do (or the good stuff we don’t do) is the by product of the sinful heart within. We need inner cleansing, inner healing, inner feeding.
We need to welcome God into the spiritual center, to surrender to Jesus as Lord of the heart. Once there, by the Spirit, He begins the inner transformation that will result in outward change. As the Spirit does His work, the fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, etc. But this only happens as we allow God, through Jesus, to be first in our lives.
There is no hope apart from restoring God to the center of our lives.
PRAYER:
Lord, take over my heart, change me, and make me as I ought to be.