Daily Devotion – The Lord Looks at the Heart

She’s the kind of friend that can drop in at a moment’s notice. In fact, she doesn’t have to knock for that matter either. My house is always open to Elaine, and she knows that.

It comes from being friends for over 20 years and living in the same neighbourhood.

I used to say, “I clean up good the first time you come over, but after that, you get what you get.”

She doesn’t care about the mess. Whether my house is spotless or I’m rolling dough on laundry day–she’s the same either way. I don’t have to go out of my way to impress her–she’s like family that way. She doesn’t care about the state of my house–she cares about me.

As I got thinking about her today, I was reminded of the words from 1 Samuel 16:7, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Like a friend who knows you inside out, knows what you keep in your cupboard, what makes you laugh, what makes you cry… The Lord knows your heart. He doesn’t see the messy bedhead in the morning or the failed projects you’ve tossed to the side.

He sees the real you. The one that He died for. The one that He loves.

Subscribe so you don’t miss a post:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is chimp.png

Tilling the Soil

Read 1 Samuel 16:1-13.

Planting Hope

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7, KJV)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Author2-1024x234.png

Darlene Schacht and her husband Michael live in Manitoba Canada where the summers are beautiful and the winters are cold. Together they’ve come to learn that relationships aren’t always easy, but that marriage, the way God intended it to be, is a treasure worth fighting for.

She began her publishing journey about twelve years ago when she pioneered one of the first online magazines for Christian women, known at the time as “Christian Women Online Magazine.” After three years, Darlene left CWO to blog as a solo author at Time-Warp Wife Ministries.

It was also during this transition that she worked alongside actress Candace Cameron Bure to write the NYT Best-Selling book, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness. Reshaping it All was the winner of both the 2011 USA Best Book Awards and the 2012 Christian Reading Retailers Choice Awards.

Author of more than 15 books, Darlene continues to write and to minister to her readers through her blog at TimeWarpWife.com.