I Know Your Heart

I Know Your Heart

²³ Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, ²⁵ and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

John 2:22-25

It must have been very difficult for Jesus socially while he lived in this world. As a child, while other kids were getting into trouble and making mistakes, Jesus was living a perfect life. I can only imagine the rejection he must have felt from other kids. As an adult, he always seemed to do the exact opposite of what people were expecting. He would speak hard things to hear, like destroy this Temple, when people were anxious to hear him. That only caused anger in most. In these verses, the Bible says that there were many who wanted to believe in him and make him their leader but instead he stayed away. He could never really win with people.

But there was always a reason for his backwards behavior. He always did the unexpected because that is truly what people needed instead of wanted. He knew their hearts. They wanted to make him king so that Rome would fall. It had nothing to do with God or real salvation. They just wanted to have their land back and be blessed. Jesus knew that that would never give long lasting help. If Jesus had toppled Rome and given the Jews their land back, they’d just go back to their Old Testament ways. They would veer even further from God and only return back to where they started.

The same is true for us. There are times when we ask things of God but it’s not what’s best for us. Like the Jews in Jesus’ day, we often think more about the now instead of the future. God wants to give us eternal life with Him in heaven. To get there, there are things that God has to keep away from us or we too would veer away from him.

Are you willing to accept that God knows better than yourself when it comes to your life? Are you willing to accept that there’s things God will not give us because it’s what’s best for our spiritual lives? At times this can be hard to accept but it is true.

May we all find a way to live in peace with God’s plan for our lives. He knows our hearts as well.

 

God bless,

Pr. Steven Couto