“God knows my heart.”

That statement is usually said before, during, or immediately after doing something that we as Christians have no business doing at all…

Usually the latter if we are going to be completely honest –

God knows my heart…..

Sadly this has become an excuse that we use to give ourselves a free pass to do whatever it is we feel like doing at the time, or scarily when we as Christians have been caught in sin.  All we have to do is say the “magic phrase” and whatever it is that we plan on doing, did, plan on saying, or just did and/or said will be ok.  Then, if we are really on the fence about whether it was uncalled for, we may follow it up with “Lord, please forgive me.”

None of this means that we won’t do it or say it again.  It doesn’t even mean that we are actually truly repentant.

Because well, God knows our hearts, right?

When we really look at the statement what we are truly saying is that even though I am going to do or say something that is messed up, you or I personally believe that in our heart of hearts we are good.  That we don’t really mean what we are doing or what we said. That it is all in fun, and/or possibly if we do mean it, we don’t truly mean any lasting harm.  Then, if we do actually intend lasting harm, that it’s ok.  Since well, you know…God knows our hearts and we’re ACTUALLY really good decent Christian people.

The funny thing about it is, God DOES know our hearts (THIS should SCARE and AWE us). He knows everything about us, from the top of our pretty heads to the sole of our little feet.

So with that here are some things we ought to remember:

• Before taking action we should ask God to guard our tongue: (Basically ask Him to help us watch what we say.  The tongue is a deadly weapon.)

Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. – Psalm 141:3

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. – Proverbs 18:21

• The mouth speaks what the heart feels.  Ever heard the saying that a drunk and a baby will always tell you the truth?  That is because they are speaking from the heart.  A majority of the time so are a lot of us.  No matter if we add “lol” or “jk” at the end.

The bible even says:

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. – Matthew 12:34

Now I’m not calling you a brood of vipers,
but this is just saying that we need to make
sure that we are asking God to create a clean heart in us DAILY.  It can be easy to speak death over situations “Oh my head hurts so bad badly” or “I’m always so broke, I never have money,” and then wonder why we have constant headaches or a struggle in finances.

It is so easy to get caught up in the world,
because let’s face it.  The world can be
mighty alluring, and then we end up having touse the excuse “God knows my heart” whensomeone calls us out on our Christianity.

I cannot pretend that I have never used the
excuse that “Hey, God knows my heart!” Or
that I don’t struggle to prevent myself from
using it as an excuse when I do things that I
know I’m not supposed to (still working on that), I just ask God to please continue to work on me and create a clean heart in me and renew it daily, because the truth is it’s hard not to revert to the easy used and go to excuse.

This is why it is good that God does in reality know our hearts.  The amazing thing is He loves us in spite of them (our crazy ♥️)and their tendency to lean towards unlovable actions.  He knows them to a point that He knows that we will mess up daily, turn around and use the “God knows my heart” excuse, and He will still grant us Grace and Mercy.

We have just got to do better.  So instead of telling people “God knows my heart,” tell God, “Lord you know my heart, please fix it, clean it, and make it more like you.” See how things start to change. Watch how your heart and actions change. It’s absolutely amazing!

Ask God to touch your heart and take out whatever is not like Him and to help your actions match your words daily. It’s a daily walk and growth. It’s not always easy, but it is worth it!