But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
We have a tendency to look on outward appearances. We see someone who appears dirty and ragged and often think less of them. They are dirty, they must be homeless, why don’t they do something to better themselves. All thoughts that say we are thinking less of them. We as people have a tendency to do this with all people. We look on the outside. We place people in groups, we place ourselves in groups. White, black, Hispanic, homosexual, heterosexual, white collar, worker bee, rich, poor, disabled, veteran, Christian, Muslim, so many different groups. Many times, we fall into more than one. But all have a way of looking down on others who do not fall into their “group”.
We look on the outside. How often do you take time to get to know someone, really know them? Asking questions to better understand. Sometimes we try to do this but still fall short. We often don’t even look at our own hearts. If we take the time to look at ourselves, really look inside ourselves, we often discover we see things we don’t like. It’s hard to look at the heart, especially our own.
God does not see the outward appearance. It does not matter to Him what our abilities are, what our skin color is, what our station in life is. God looks at our hearts. He sees what others, and even ourselves, do not. We cannot hide from Him. He knows. His focus is where it needs to be. We need to change the directions of our thoughts.
Do we spend time looking down on others or do we spend our time lifting them up? There are so many ways to do this. When we do things to lift others, no matter what it is, it shows God’s love. He wants us to lift others up. Ultimately, He wants us to direct others to Him.
We need to keep our eyes focused on God, always look up to Him. We also need to make sure when we are looking up to Him, we are bringing others along with us to also look up to Him. By doing this, we find that our hearts grow in the direction God wants them to grow. The more time we devote to Him and the more that we allow Him to work on our hearts, the more He shows in us by the way we act and treat others.
Open year heart to God. Let the Holy Spirit work on your heart. Love will grow and the more it grows the more it will show.