3.040 The Thoughts of His Heart

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose this day whom you will serve.

What are the thoughts of your heart? We're starting off the week deep as we dive into Genesis 6-11, as well as Moses 8. And with a tear in my eye but a smile on my face, we finish up the book of Moses by reading Moses 8 inside of our readings this week.

The thoughts of our hearts seem to matter. In fact, as we get into our verse for today, and you look at the topical guide inside of the scriptures, you'll find that the term 'heart' in all of its different fashions shows up in the scriptures, I don't know, somewhere between 150 and 200 times. What is it about our hearts that seems to matter to the Lord?

And what is it about our hearts that seems to be a barometer of our willingness to follow Him? Those are some of the questions that came to mind as I looked at our verse for today as we get into Genesis chapter 6. Our verse for today is going to come inside of Genesis chapter 6, and it's going to be verse 5.

It says this: Now, just a quick reminder, I guess, before we dive into it. We've had Enoch and Enoch's incredible experience, and we've been able to understand it way more inside of the book of Moses through chapters 6 and 7 in Moses. But remember that in chapter 7 of Moses, Enoch also witnesses Noah and the flood and the cleansing of the earth.

And we get kind of this fast-forward piece. Now we're going to back up in Genesis chapter 6 and go back to the time of Noah here on the earth. So Enoch, seeing it from up above with the city of Zion, right?

Now we're going to come back and kind of experience it through the lens of Noah. And so that's going to be our reading this week as we dive into it. Genesis 6, verse 5.

It says this: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Now, did you catch that phrase inside of there? It's such an interesting phrase. I'm going to say it again. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This is the moment that the Lord realizes that the earth needs to be cleansed from the wickedness that is on the earth.

And so I think it's an interesting barometer to take a look in our own lives at the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Now, the extremely logical person would go all the way to the realm of saying, "Your heart can't have a thought. Your heart is an organ.

Your brain is an organ. You can't originate thoughts from your heart." And I think there's a piece there that's missing, and I'm going to use kind of a Greek interpretation that is often found inside the scriptures. The term 'heart' in this Greek interpretation is actually translated like "sanctum sanctorum." It's like your heart of hearts.

And what it means is like your soul, the thoughts of your soul. Now, I didn't look into the Greek translation here for this specific word 'heart', but I just wanted to kind of mental note that as we dive into this. So what's happening here is God sees that everything that consumes the individual in this day, this time of Noah, is evil and wickedness.

My friends, what consumes the imaginations of your thoughts inside your heart, at your deep-down core? What do you hope is happening in your life? Is it a desire to draw closer to the Lord?

Thank you for joining us. I think this phrase is worth each one of us taking an opportunity to look and to pause and to say, "All right, when my heart goes down the realm of thoughts and imaginations, where does it go? Does it go towards the Lord or does it go away from him?" This seems to be really the breaking point for the story of Noah and the cleansing of the earth through the flood.

The Lord sees that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In reference to the people that were on the earth at that day. My friends, take some time and dig into the topical guide.

Take some time to look at the different ways the Lord sees the heart and the thoughts of our hearts. And then take an opportunity to say, "Hey, on this path of savory salt, how can I increase the imaginations of the thoughts of my heart to be towards the Lord and towards good continually, rather than that of the people of Noah in his day?" That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith, and let's be savory salt. We'll be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.