Why is it Important to know the Heart of God?

When we speak of the heart of something, we are referring to the core, most important or significant part of that thing. Here, when I say the heart of God, I am referring to the most important thing to God. But, why is it important to know the heart of God? When we love others, we care for them, and we should want to know what is most important to them. Their heart should be important to us because it is important to them. So, if we say we love God, do we know what His most important concern is? What is the heart of God?

The Great Love that God has for Man

A look at the Bible from the beginning tells us that God created man, man disobeyed Him and so brought eternal torment upon all of mankind (Genesis 3). At this point, God could have just allowed man to suffer this sentence for his disobedience, but God did not do that (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16-18).

The accounts of history in the Bible demonstrated the great love that God has for man. God chose to create man and give him a beautiful place to live, and all that he needed to live an abundant life, lacking nothing. But that was not enough. Man thought that God was withholding good things from him, and he disobeyed God. This disobedience resulted in a sentence of death for mankind. God cared so much for man that He did not leave man to bear this punishment. However, God is righteous, and He will not just wave a magic wand and remove the sentence of death on man. This would be unrighteous. Man sinned, and the consequence was death. So, God took man’s place and paid our price of death and recused us from eternal damnation (Romans 5:8). All we need to do is accept His gift of life. But many times, it is not an easy route, and we still want to rebel against God. We often look over to the other side of the river and think that the grass is greener on the other side. But that is another direction for another time. Today we focus on the fact that this action that God took represents His great love for man.

God’s Steadfast Love Endures Forever

The story of God and man seems to follow this common theme over and over again. God provides for man, but then man thinks he sees something better and he dishonours God and goes after the wrong things. God forgives man, pays our debt, and offers him reconciliation, but man makes the same mistake again and again. This thing that the LORD does for us is true love. Where He seeks us, even when we dishonour Him and turn our backs on His love towards us, this is love. God forgives us many times. Lamentation 3:22 tells us that His love never ceases, and His mercies never come to an end. This is what true love is and such a comforting fact that God’s steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 136). However, we must remember that there is a deadline. There comes a point when it will be too late and there will be no more time for repentance and forgiveness. We do not know when this deadline is and so, we need to accept Him before it is too late.

Man is a significant character in the Word of God

The Bible is God’s word. It is the most tangible thing that is God’s, that we have with us. God’s word tells us who He is. Therefore, I wanted to see who or what are most mentioned in the Bible. What is the most important thing to God in the Bible? The most frequently used words in the Bible are the words that refer to God. These are “God, Lord, and LORD. These words occur over 12000 times in the Bible, and they are the most frequently occurring words excluding any pronouns, conjunctions, propositions or determiner such as “and”, “the”, “of”, “that”, “to”, “in”, “he”, “a” etc. This made sense to me as the Bible is essentially God’s book, and so it speaks about God a lot. But what I found interesting was the second most commonly used word is a word referring to us; “man” or “men”. These words occurred over 4200 times. So other than God, man is most mentioned in the Bible. I believe that this fact tells us that man is a very important character in God’s word. In His word, which contains the instructions for life eternal, that is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and is God himself, He would speak of man more than any other topic. And this number excludes all the other references of the many people God spoke of in the Bible. The main character which God speaks about in His word is man.

God made Man in His image

God created man in His own image to represent Him on the earth (Genesis 1:27). Several times in the Bible, biblical authors asked the question “who is man that God remembers him and cares for him?” (Psalm 8:4; Hebrews 2:6-7; Psalm 144:3). Man is such an insignificant creature when you think of who the creator is. There is nothing that limits God, He is great, mighty, righteous, and awesome. When we look at His creations, we can see some of His greatness, but there is so much that we cannot comprehend (Psalm 8:3). He is greater than we can ever understand, yet still, man is significant to Him. He made man lower than the angels but crowned him with glory and honour (Hebrews 2:7). Psalms 8:6-8 says that God has given man dominion over the works of His hands and put all things under his feet. God’s own breath gives us life (Job 33:4). God breathed life into man, and so he has the breath of the Almighty in him (Job 32:8; Genesis 2:7). Who is man that God dwells in man (2 Timothy 1:14)? Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. He has made man wonderful and marvellous (Psalm 139:14).

We are very important to God

These important facts tell us that man is very significant to God. God loves man, more than we can ever love anyone. He loves us more than the love you have for your our flesh and blood. He made this earth for us. All that we see around us that is good is from Him. And even when we turn away from Him and sin against Him, like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24), God is calling us home, ready to forgive us and welcome us as His adored children.

The Heart of God is Mankind

Given that there is only so much we can understand about an infinite God, I cannot say for sure what is the heart of God. But given the information that He has given us (His sufficient and all-inclusive word), we can see that man is at the heart of God. We are at His very core. God, a true father, loves us like we love our children, and even more than that. He picks us up when we fall and forgives us when we are rebellious and makes a way when we curse Him and disrespect Him. He wants all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). One of the two most important commandments He has given us is to love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). So, we are the heart of God, and He cares deeply for us. The heart is not just me or you but it is all mankind. And so just as He says we need to love others as we love ourselves and as God loves us, so too all humans should be our heart.

Summary

• God did not allow man to be condemned to eternal damnation
• God’s actions show His great love for man
• God’s steadfast love endures forever
• The second main character which God speaks about in His word is man.
• God created man in His own image
• Man is insignificant when compared to God, but he is significant to God
• God crowned man with glory and honour
• God gave man dominion over the earth
• The breath of God is in man
• God has made man wonderful and marvellous
• Man is the heart of God
• All humans should be our heart as well.

All photos were taken by Kyle or Vani. These photos are from the many adventures we have been blessed to experience together. We are so grateful for every blessing from God. No filters were used nor were the photos edited except for an occasional crop. We hope you enjoy.