Proverbs 4:23-24: „23 Keep your heart above all keeping; for out of it are the sources of lives. 24 Put away from you a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from you“
Today we want to consider how important sincerity is in our relationship with Elohim (God). The verse above even states that life depends on it. Repentance, salvation, protection, peace of mind and peace with others result from a true and honest attitude of heart.
1) The Honest Heart as a Nurturing Ground for Love
1 Timothy 1:5-7: „5 But the goal of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of a sincere faith, 6 from which things some having strayed, have turned away to vain conversation, 7 desiring to be teachers of the Torah, but understanding neither what they say, nor what they strongly affirm“.
Love
From verse 5 we learn that love is, and must be, the ultimate goal of all Christian teaching. If the sermons you hear do not cause you to love Elohim and people (including yourself) more, then stop listening to them. For then there is something wrong with the preacher, or you yourself are not taking it to heart.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4–8,13, love is described in somewhat greater detail:
„4 Love is patient, it is kind, love is not envious, love does not boast, it is not puffed up, 5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own benefit, is not irritable, does not keeps account of evil, 6 does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Covers all things, believes all, hopes all, endures all. 8 Love never fails. […] And now remains faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love“
From this Bible passage, we can see that a certain attitude of heart is necessary in order not to be envious, boastful, indecent, self-seeking, bitter or resentful.
The pure heart
One can only draw near to Elohim if one is sincere. The very first prerequisite is a truthful heart. You then conceal nothing, but lay everything bare before your Creator.
Hebrews 10:22: „let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water“
With a truthful heart, a process of transformation takes place within you. You believe that only Elohim, Yehoshua (Jesus), can help you now, and through this your heart is made pure and the guilty conscience disappears.
Ezekiel 36:25-26: „25 Then will I sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh“
The heart of flesh contains – in contrast to the selfish heart of stone – love for Elohim and love for one’s neighbour. This love in the heart should then be the driving force in your life and the motivation for everything you do.
The heart is then pure; nothing false remains within it: false attitudes and perspectives, malice, hatred, schadenfreude, prejudice, envy, anger, bitterness, vengeance, fornication, impure thoughts, adultery, lust and addiction, false religion, etc…
Should you nevertheless discover these things in your heart, then your honesty allows you to come before Elohim again and again and ask Him for mercy, so that He may change your heart.
A good conscience
In this way you also attain a clear conscience, as it says in Hebrews 13:18:
„Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves well in all things“
A clear conscience results solely from the fact that you know Elohim has forgiven you. He can only forgive you, as we read in Chapter 1, if you come before him honestly, because your sin troubles you or because you cannot break free from it.
If you do everything with pure and honest intentions, then you can say with Paul:
„But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor distorting the word of Elohim, but by manifestation of the truth recommending ourselves to every human conscience before Elohim“ (2 Corinthians 4:2).
A clear conscience is nothing other than the assurance of salvation, the firm conviction that you are saved, come what may. It is the certainty that you have nothing to reproach yourself for and that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ (Romans 8).
Naturally, our thoughts are also under attack, which is why Paul advises us in Ephesians 6:17: „And take the helmet of salvation…“.
This helmet protects you from the invisible attacks of your enemy, the devil, who fires flaming arrows at you to defile your thoughts. It is then in your thoughts that the „holy war“ takes place, which religions have greatly misinterpreted throughout history and even today!
„4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but powerful before Elohim, to the destruction of strongholds, 5 casting down reasonings and every high thing lifted up against the knowledge of Elohim, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Mashiah„ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
This is your daily battle of faith within your thoughts!
Unfeigned Faith
This concerns the true, genuine faith in Yehoshua Mashiah (Jesus Christ), the Saviour. The word „faith“ is used in various ways in the Bible.
- Faith is a synonym for the Gospel (Romans 1:8).
- Faith is a spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:9).
- Faith is a fruit of the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
In Yohanan/John 4:23–24, Yehoshua states that we must worship Elohim in truth:
„23 But the hour comes and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such worshipping him. 24 Elohim is Spirit, and they worshipping him, must worship him in spirit and in truth“
Worship must be with sincere faith. If we examine the Greek word for hypocrisy, „hypocritos„, it refers to an actor playing a role. He wears a mask behind which he hides. We must not appear before Elohim in this way, nor even before people. Elohim does not hear actors who hide their sin.
2) An honest heart as the foundation for answered prayer
Elohim forgives when nothing is withheld from Him
King David can be regarded as a model for us when it comes to sincerity before Elohim. What made him the „man after YHWH’s heart“ was not his sinlessness or his wise way of life, but the fact that he did not conceal his sins, but brought it openly before Elohim.
Psalm 32:2-5: „2 Blessed is the man to whom YHWH imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said: I will confess my transgressions to YHWH and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah“.
Even when David committed adultery with the wife of one of his soldiers –Uriah– and sent her husband to the front line, where he was certain to be killed, Elohim was able to forgive the king, as he repented with a sincere heart. He hid nothing of his wickedness from Elohim; he humbled himself and thus regained his purity and honour before the Lord. Read Psalm 51 on this subject. Yohanan (John), the disciple of Yehoshua, also expressed his experience of Elohim’s forgiveness:
„8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous that he forgives us the sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us“ (1 John 1:8-10).
The most important thing, then, is that truth reigns in our hearts and that we are sincere! Then Elohim hears our prayers.
Elohim hears the prayers of people who are sincere with him
Psalm 66:18–20: „18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, Adonay will not hear me: 19 But verily Elohim has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be Elohim, which has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me“.
Elohim knows the motivations of our hearts.
- He knows why we pray for something.
- He knows our attitude towards him.
David found that Elohim answered him when he had no ulterior motives and when he respected Elohim’s instructions.
Psalm 145:18–20: „18 YHWH is nigh to all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. 19 He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. 20 YHWH preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy“.
Verse 18 makes it very clear that the Lord hears those who truly call upon him. To do this, we must first of all know who he really is and must not address him by false names. Furthermore, we must be sincere when we turn to him. Furthermore, we are to fear Him and keep His word. As described in verse 19, this is the starting point for our prayers to be answered.
Psalm 37:4 also advises you: „And take delicate pleasures in YHWH, and he will give you the desires of your heart„.
For when you delight in Elohim, His desires suddenly become your own. That is why you will then receive what your heart desires: because Elohim desires it too!
The condition for Elohim to hear you is that you love Him with all your heart. And so that you may love Him with all your heart, you must allow yourself to be taught by the true doctrine, the Word of Elohim!