“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.” (1 Samuel 16:7). When we are torn between two choices that both look equally good, we may try our best to look at both with a critical eye and weigh the pros and cons of choosing one over the other. We may even ask the Lord in prayer which is the better choice. But can I suggest something that may make our decisions and our prayers more effective? It is rarely the case that something is purely good or purely bad, so simply asking ourselves or the Lord if this choice or that choice is good could give us answers that are not as specific as we are looking for. If we want to know which choice is good, well, maybe both have good qualities. But if we want to know which choice is best, we have to dig a little deeper. We have to look at the heart of the thing. It is crucial to the development of our faith that God answers the questions that we actually ask. He does not always answer the questions we should have asked. How else would we learn? So, if we ask God, does this choice look good, then God might reply, yes, this choice looks good, on the surface. And He might reply the same way for the other choice. But what if we asked instead, Father, when you look on the heart of this choice, is it good? We might get a completely different answer because we have asked a completely different question. The truth is, we usually have the ability to look at the heart of something and tell if it is good or bad. But we don't always want to look at the heart of the matter. Better to choose the bliss of ignorance and fool ourselves into believing that if it looks good on the surface, then it must be good all the way down, rather than being honest with ourselves and looking at the heart of things and risking the disappointment that something that looked too good to be true was in fact too good to be true. I know that if we find ourselves in a dilemma and pray to God not asking Him to tell us what to do or to make a decision for us or to confirm the choice we want to make but instead asking Him to help us see into the heart of the matter, we will get our answer. It may not be the answer we wanted to hear, but if we will approach our lives with a commitment to always seek the Lord's insight into the hearts of things, we will spend much less time going down dead ends and blind alleys and will definitely be much happier in the long run.
