Hearts Far From God

13The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me

is based on merely human rules they have been taught. ^b

14Therefore once more I will astound these people

with wonder upon wonder;

the wisdom of the wise will perish,

the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

15Woe to those who go to great depths

to hide their plans from the Lord,

who do their work in darkness and think,

“Who sees us? Who will know?”

16You turn things upside down,

as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,

“You did not make me”?

Can the pot say to the potter,

      “You know nothing”?  Isaiah 29:13-16
Where are our hearts?
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. Matthew 12:35

We are not born good, but Children are innocent.  Children are taught to be good, to be thankful, to be kind, to be generous. These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. It takes more than mere words to please God.  God sees into the heart, our motivation, our feelings,  if our hearts are not in it God sees. We cannot fool God, don't lie to God, he already knows what is in our hearts. Do we worship God by our rules, or do we worship God by following his rules?  Don't try to hide from God, even in the dark he sees. Our true motivation is not hidden from God. Can the one who is formed by God say you did not make me? Can we say, God, you don't know anything? God sees the heart, we cannot hide from God. We may think we are getting away with sin, but there is a judgment day coming when everything we have done, we have said will be exposed. We will give an account to God himself. God's record does not lie. Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord. It will not work, God sees all. Where are our hearts in all we do and say? Everything we do and say flows from the heart.  A good man brings forth good things that he has stored up in him. an evil man brings forth evil things out of the evil stored in him. We are born in sin, if we are not taught to be good, we will not be good. Where does good come from?  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17  Good comes from God.  God sees into our hearts even with Cain. 6Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:6-7.    Both Cain and Abel brought an offering to God. They were different, Abel brought from the flocks he was raising, and Cain from the crops he was raising. Something was wrong with Cain's and God saw it. God spoke to Cain about it. You must do right, you must rule over it.  If you do not do what is right, sin is the cause of it.  It doesn't make any sense. Abel did not do anything wrong to Cain. He did not harm Cain. the issue was in Cain's heart, he did not deal with it, whatever it was. Even after God warned him, and what does Cain do from the evil in his heart? He kills his brother. The only thing we see in this story is Abel's offering was accepted by God, and Cain's was not. Heart issues are not hidden from God. In fact, God is the only one that can fix the heart. Actions speak louder than words, what do are actions represent? Good or evil?  We have a choice to follow, Good or evil, it is ours to choose. When we become adults, as Cain and Abel were at this time. We make choices that we follow. Where is our heart today, what path have we followed? The Bible tells us we cannot serve two masters. We either serve good or evil. Good comes from God. There really are two choices in life. In almost any situation in life issues, do we choose what is right (good), or wrong (evil).   The Bible story does not tell us a lot about whatever the issue was with Cain, but it was a heart issue because God says sin lies at the door. If we don't fix the heart issues, we will sin. In this case, Cain murdered his brother. Nothing is hidden from God, he sees into the heart, the motivations, our thoughts. All have sinned, apart from God, we sin. It is in our DNA. But God wants to help us to be good. He gave us his word to guide us, he will dwell in our hearts, if we will invite him in.  God bless, LVZ.