A man is not defined by what he does, but by what is in his heart. That may sound strange at first because, on the surface, we often judge people by their actions. A wealthy man who donates large sums to charity is seen as generous. A person who prays openly is seen as devout. A man who refrains from sin is seen as righteous. But Jesus teaches us something deeper—who we are is not determined by what we do but by what drives us to do it.
Picture two wealthy men. Both give generously to the poor, support their communities, and donate to causes that help others. If we only looked at their actions, they would seem identical. But one of them gives because he wants recognition. He wants his name on a plaque, his picture in the paper, his reputation as a benefactor solidified. His heart is not generous—it is hungry for admiration. The other gives quietly, not caring if anyone sees, because he truly loves those in need and wants to reflect the goodness of God. The same outward action, but two very different men. It is not the giving that makes one righteous and the other selfish—it is the heart that determines who they are.
Paul speaks to this in 1 Corinthians 13 when he says:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV).
Even the most extraordinary acts—prophesying, giving away everything, performing miracles—amount to nothing without love. The same is true for us. If we do good things, but our hearts are not shaped by love, then in God’s eyes, those acts are empty.
Jesus gives us a powerful picture of this in His parable of the two men who owed debts.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.” (Matthew 18:23-27 ESV).
This king forgave an impossible debt—not because of what he could gain, but because of the mercy in his heart. He saw the man’s hopelessness and responded with grace. Now contrast that with another man in Jesus’ teachings:
“He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.
And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’
For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,
yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” (Luke 18:2-5 ESV).
This judge grants justice, not because he cares for the widow, but because he wants her to stop pestering him. The outward result is the same—justice is served—but the heart is entirely different.
What we think in our hearts, that is who we are. Are we like the king, moved by compassion? Or are we like the judge, acting only when it benefits us?
This is the lesson we see again and again. A man is not righteous simply because he does good things. His heart must be right before God. When Ananias and Sapphira sold their land and gave part of the proceeds to the apostles, it looked like an act of generosity. But their hearts told a different story.
“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,
and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?” (Acts 5:1-3 ESV).
They wanted the reputation of great sacrifice without actually making one. They claimed to give more than they did because they craved admiration. They were not truly generous—they were deceptive. Barnabas, on the other hand, did the same outward action—he sold land and gave the proceeds—but his heart was pure.
“Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus,
sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” (Acts 4:36-37 ESV).
He gave out of love, not for praise, and God honored him for it. The difference between them wasn’t the act of giving; it was the heart behind the gift.
Jesus made this abundantly clear in the Sermon on the Mount when He said:
”You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28 ESV).
He wasn’t changing the commandment; He was revealing what had always been true—sin is not just about actions. It is about the condition of our hearts. A man who avoids committing adultery but fills his mind with lust is not pure. A man who refrains from theft but secretly covets everything his neighbor has is not righteous. The external may look clean, but Jesus is looking at what is inside.
That is why our transformation cannot just be about behavior. God is not calling us to be people who simply do good things; He is calling us to be people whose hearts are transformed by His Spirit. A person can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, but when the Spirit changes our hearts, we begin to do the right thing out of love, out of devotion, out of a pure desire to honor God. That is the kind of person Jesus welcomes into His kingdom.
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 serve as a sobering reminder that we can have remarkable abilities, perform great acts of faith, and even make incredible sacrifices—but if we do not have love, we gain nothing. The power of a transformed heart is not in the actions themselves, but in the love that drives them.
The beautiful thing is that we are not left to figure this out on our own. God is committed to shaping us into people who reflect His heart. But He does not force us. He looks for a willing heart. He looks for those who desire to be changed, those who hunger to be more like Jesus. When we come to Him with that willingness, He does the work of transformation. He renews our minds. He reshapes our desires. He softens what was once hardened.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 ESV).
We saturate our minds with His Word, because what we dwell on shapes who we become. We walk by the Spirit, learning to recognize when our flesh is leading us and when God is calling us to something higher.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16 ESV).
Most of all, we pay attention to our motives. Before we act, we ask ourselves: Why am I doing this? Is this about my glory or God’s? Am I giving because I love, or because I want recognition? Am I serving because I have been transformed, or because I want to be seen as a good person? These are hard questions, but they are necessary ones, because the truth is, we can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons and still be far from God.
The good news is, He is patient. He is not expecting perfection from us—only a heart that is willing to be changed. Day by day, He works in us, shaping us into the likeness of Jesus.
May our hearts be so filled with the love of God that our thoughts, our motives, and our actions all align with His. May we be people who do good not because we have to, but because we have been made new. And may we never forget that true transformation begins, not with our actions, but with the work of the Spirit deep within our hearts.
I am in the book of Esther in my daily Bible reading. It is a book where you see God everywhere, though He is never mentioned. This is how it is in our lives. We don’t need an angel from heaven to announce God’s presence—His goodness and work in our lives are abundantly seen everywhere.
One sign of God’s presence that we may overlook in the book of Esther is the very circumstance that led to the downfall of wicked Haman. Have you ever wondered why Mordechai insisted that Esther keep her nationality quiet when she was chosen to replace Queen Vashti?
Could this have been part of God’s plan? Consider this:
What if Esther had revealed from the beginning that she was a Jew and that Mordechai had raised her? Haman, ever the political strategist, would have been far more careful. He likely would not have sought to destroy the Queen’s kinsman or his people.
The story of Esther would have played out very differently, and we may have missed one of the most powerful testimonies of God’s unseen hand. Yet, because things unfolded the way they did, we are given a breathtaking example of God’s providence—without His name being mentioned once.
What lesson do I take away from this? Sometimes, God uses the smallest, most unexpected details in our lives for His glory. Even when God seems hidden in the moment, we can look back and see His hand at work in ways we never expected.
What a powerful God we serve.
I just had an experience where I went to God for help with an issue at work I was dealing with. I really needed Him to help me in a specific way.
Two minutes ago, my teammate reached out to me, thanking me for the intercession with a vendor I made on her behalf. The truth is, the intercession I made did not result in what I wanted, and I had plans on escalating it this morning.
However, my intercession achieved an even better result I had not even considered asking God for.
What a lesson! While I can ask God for specific actions, sometimes He can deliver better answers than I even know to ask.
I am in the book of Proverbs in my daily Bible reading. Proverbs is one of those books where we could easily write a post on every verse. But reading 10 chapters a day means I need to focus on one passage or theme and leave other thoughts for another time.
Today, Proverbs 17:14 caught my attention:
“The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.” (Proverbs 17:14 ESV).
How many times have we all wished we had listened to this wisdom? Proverbs speaks often about showing restraint with our words—how they can either heal or destroy.
This proverb gives us insight into how to avoid a fight before it even starts. Whether it’s with a spouse, a child, a friend, or a coworker, wisdom teaches us to recognize when a quarrel is brewing and stop it before it spills over.
We know the damage a quarrel can cause, don’t we? Once words are unleashed in anger, they are as hard to contain as water breaking through a dam. Just as rushing water can erode and destroy everything in its path, a heated argument can leave behind fractured relationships, hurt feelings, and regret.
So what can we do when we sense a quarrel coming? Wisdom urges us to pause and consider. But often, pride wants to win the argument, and anger pushes us forward when we should be stepping back.
How many times have we spoken words in the heat of the moment that we later wished we could take back? That’s why Solomon counsels us to quit the quarrel before it breaks out—because once it does, the damage may be far greater than we ever intended.
I’m in the book of Ezra in my daily Bible reading. Sometimes, it’s easy to get lost in the long lists of numbers and inventories of the remnant who returned to Jerusalem. But those details tell an incredible story of God’s faithfulness.
God didn’t just promise to preserve a remnant of His people—He gave astonishing details about how He would do it. Long before Cyrus, king of Persia, was even born, God spoke through Isaiah:
“Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” (Isaiah 44:28 ESV).
And again:
“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
‘I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.’” (Isaiah 45:1-4 ESV).
Think about this: Isaiah wrote these words around 700–681 BC, long before Persia was even a major world power. Nearly 150 years later, Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon in 539 BC and issued a decree to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
Ezra records it like this:
“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.’” (Ezra 1:1-3 ESV).
God named Cyrus, His “shepherd,” more than a century before he even existed. And when the time came, Cyrus—an unlikely pagan king—fulfilled God’s plan to restore His people and rebuild His temple.
This is the God we serve. He is the God who names names before birth and moves nations to accomplish His will. When life feels overwhelming, when it looks like the world is spinning out of control, take heart. God’s sovereignty hasn’t diminished one bit. He knows the end from the beginning, and nothing—absolutely nothing—can thwart His purposes.
Our God can do all things. Let us trust Him to be faithful in every detail of our lives, just as He was with His people so long ago.