A good friend passed away last February, and it caught a lot of people off guard. She was such a mentor to me, whether she knew it or not. Her kind words and sharp blue eyes pierced my soul as she spoke. She often spoke about the heart of God and of others. One night, I was heading over to Sue’s for dinner. It was shortly after John and I started dating, and my trust in men was flimsy at best.
With a psychology degree, I can know the motives of the heart, right? There are times when motives come out into the open, but I doubt that I am seeing the whole story. Sue knew I struggled with this. She read the trouble in my eyes as I alluded to our dating life; I had no idea where we were headed, and I was done with the dating scene.
“Nicole…”
Sue spoke with kind eyes.
“We can’t know the motivations of the heart. That’s God’s job.”
The problem with actually knowing the motivations of my loved ones’ hearts are that I would try to come up with solutions. Given that I am not God, life would fall apart pretty quickly at that point. God cares about our hearts. He loves us so much that he chooses to sacrifice His Son on a Cross instead of blowing us to pieces and creating a humanity that is forced to love Him. I absolutely cannot wait until the day that I see the loving God who gave me a choice to love.
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV
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