Have you ever been asked, “Why did you do that?” We might fumble around with an answer…trying to come up with an excuse but at the “core” the answer is as old as time. The country song by Dierks Bentley describes a boy doing stupid things because he is enamored by a girl (verse from the song) “Becky… a beauty from South Alabama. Her daddy had a heart like a nine-pound hammer.,” The title of the song is “What was I Thinkin’?” That great philosopher Forrest Gump sums up this type of thinkn’ like this, “Stupid is as stupid does!”

Years ago, I read Earl Nightingale’s book, The Strangest Secret where he wrote, “Some years ago, the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a reporter, “Doctor, what’s wrong with men today?” The great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, “Men simply don’t think!” Nightingale later went on to quote the answer to the “core” issue from Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” It is always a heart issue.

Several days ago, while studying the Revelation in Bible Study Fellowship’s, WordGo, the question was asked, “How much do you think about God?” That question was followed by, “From where do you draw your ideas about what He (God) is like?” Oh, baby! First do I think about God and when? Then how or who shapes my relationship with Him?

The First question, How much do you think about God & when? Is God like the Fire Alarm on the wall that says, “Pull Down in Case of Fire”? Or like the grandpa that you can crawl up in his lap and tell your deepest secrets? How do you start your day? Does He get the first & the best of your day or what’s left over? One of the great signs of failure for the Israelites God redeemed from Egypt was that they were ungrateful for all God had done…they grumbled. Because of their ungrateful, grumbling hearts, they died in the desert not in the Promise Land. The people I know, who have the Joy of Life in the good times and bad, think about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all through the day. They get up with a grateful heart thinking of Him. They go through the day with an on-going conversation (prayer) with Him. It is a Trust Relationship of the heart.

This takes us to the second question; How do you know Him? The folks I observe with a “No-Matter-What” relationship with Him are passionate Prayers & Students of God’s Word. They have discovered, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. These followers of Christ understand & live the words of Jesus in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

In summary, it is having a Heart for Jesus. Paul shares what this will look like in Philippians 2:1-5 “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Only Jesus can transform a heart rotten to the core to a healthy, vibrant, full-of-life heart. It takes a personal relationship with Him… it’s a choice that only you can make.