This week I received an object lesson on the fact that God looks on the heart.

One morning as I was squeezing oranges for breakfast, a regular healthy habit, I noticed that many of the oranges that I was squeezing had rather ugly spots and blemishes on the outside skin. But when I cut them open they looked beautiful on the inside and rendered an abundance of sweet juice.

However one orange that I cut in half had a black spot of spoilage right in the middle. I rejected it and threw it in the compost pile because I didn’t want it to ruin the good taste of the other orange juice that I had already made. This particular orange looked good on the outside with hardly a blemish, and even though a lot of the inside looked good, the dark spot of rottenness in the middle made it a reject.

Even so, we may have an attractive outward appearance and even perform a lot of worthy acts of kindness, but if we have an evil heart of unbelief, we will still be rejected.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Psalm 66:18

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called To day, lest any of you be hardened though the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; while it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation” Hebrews 3:12-13

“But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature: because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

George W. Romer