Outward Appearances

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First  Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said unto 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 looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

     I have been labeled by some of my nurses as a person who is gullible.  That is, I tend to believe what people say to me.  I have learned a new phrase recently, called “catfishing” where a person  tells you that you are the best  thing since CornFlakes.  The end result of these comments is to get money from you.  I didn’t fall prey to some unknown figure, but rather one that I saw.  The lesson is, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

     In the world today, I and many others probably look at the appearance of an individual and determine what they are.  We seem to have developed a set of characteristics on how people look, how they talk and how they smell as to whether they are accepted in our own circle of friends.  We are often quick to pass judgment on someone based on our own set of standards.  A man came into our facility for a two week therapy stay and sat at our table for one of the meals.  He wore glasses and had a long beard.  I introduced myself to him and found out his name was Steven and was from a town not far from here.  Later on, I was talking and he said, “If you stand before God and He asks you why he should let  you into heaven, what would you say?”  I said, “The Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  to which he replied, “Good answer.”  He was a retired pharmaceutical worker, an accomplished organist and born again.  To me, he didn’t look that way and it was a surprise as he related many things f rom his life such as he had a four wheeler accident and hurt his back which was why he was at our place.  In all of life, we can evaluate what we see by the outward appearance but as the passage says above, God looks on the heart.  Of all the things that I am able to observe in a person, one thing I cannot see is their heart.  By this, I mean, I cannot see their real motives, their real intentions, their real feelings or their spiritual condition.  Only God knows that.   A person can tell you one thing and have an impure motive  and I cannot tell the difference, until later when their actions reveal their true motive.  Sooner or later, it will surface in most cases.  For some, however, it may not surface until the Great White Throne Judgment.  Then, of course, it will be too late for them and the only one they really fooled was themselves and had believed their own lie.  We will know when we are lying as the Holy Spirit will convict you of sin.  Praise God today that He looks at the heart and not t he outward appearance of anyone.