As future Isrealites and even Gentiles would pray towards the temple, where God's presence on earth dwelt, Solomon was asking God to give the pray-er what he deserved according to God's knowledge of his heart. God alone could and did know the heart of every pray-er.
God alone knows your heart. That is, only God knows your heart completely, top to bottom, inside-out, thoughts and intents.
Why is this important to know?
- So that I do not trust my OWN knowledge of my heart and instead look to God for a true diagnosis of where I am and what I need. Psalm 139:23-24
- So that I go to God's Word regularly, where the thoughts and intents of my heart will be revealed to me by God: Hebrews 4:12; and where the prescription my heart needs will be supplied, Psalm 19:7-11.
- So that I realize I am naked before God in the innermost core of my being. That being so, I can be amazed by the grace that still embraces me as a child. Jesus' death and resurrection allows God to see me as I am and love me without reservation. And, if I know that God sees me as I am, I can stop the pretending before Him. Then I will be free to TRULY love Him back, knowing that He loves me with a love that does not flow from His being impressed with me but from His infinite, loving nature.
- If God knows me at my heart-core, I can believe that everything that comes into my life day by day is designed by the heart-Knower to perform needed spiritual surgery so that I learn to love Him with all my heart and to love my neighbor as myself.
- Because then I can listen to what my brothers and sisters (and even non-believers) tell me they see regarding my heart. God still speaks through His people to His people. Iron still sharpens iron, if we let it.
I pray that 2008 is a year of allowing the heart-Knower to do His work within you.
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