Thoughts and Attitudes

I received this scripture through email from one of the daily mailing services and it triggered my heart to look at it in a whole new perspective especially the last phrase. Here it goes;

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12”

I was thinking it would’ve been great if it had said “quick to discern if you are a Christian with a Christian name” or “quick to discern if you are a regular church goer” or even if it said “and quick to discern if you pray and read the Bible everyday”. The stuff that I’ve mentioned above can be publicly justified and it’s very easy to outwardly display them. But the sad news is that God does not look at “how” we are but “who” we are. “How” can be easily displayed in public but “who” takes a great deal to accomplish because it is justified by who we inwardly are.

That is why Jesus had to meet the widow who dropped just two mites at the offering box and her story is mentioned in the Bible. There were so many explicit Godly people who brought their offerings in public. But the widow being too ashamed to reveal her petty offering thought to secretly cast it into the box. But of all those who offered to God that day Jesus honored the widow’s offering because “Word of God (Jesus) discerns the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”. I was encouraged to see Jesus saying “She (the widow) of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living – Mark 12:44”. I loved the last phrase again “even all her living”. Did she sell all her possessions and household things to give to God? No! But yet God referred to it as “all her living”. The truth behind it is that when we have the right attitude God honors us as though we have sacrificed our entire living though it may not be.

On the other hand we read about another person in the Bible named Ananias (Acts 5) who sold all his possessions in an act to give to God but kept back a “part of it” only, and laid the rest at the apostle’s feet. When the word of God discerned the thoughts and attitudes of the heart, they fell short of the expectations and had to die because of their wicked attitude. When you compare the two givers, the widow and Ananias, both gave to the Lord. The former gave only two mites and latter gave most his possessions but God judged the thoughts and attitudes.

The question we need to ask is, Are we mere explicit children of God? Do we just exist like a child of God outwardly with all evil intentions and wicked thoughts inwardly? It’s time to retrospect our lives to see if we match the expectations of God. More than anything else our attitude needs to be Godly and everything else would follow. Amen