Intentions
Recently, while reading some Bible commentary I came across something that really struck me.
“God hears our intentions as clearly as He hears our words”
This got me thinking, are our intentions more important than the words we speak? Are our intentions more important than our actions?
Intentions: “A mental state that represents a commitment to carrying out an action in the future.”
Intention. Action Plans. Aims. Motives. The purpose in your heart and mind.
God is omniscient. All knowing. HE. KNOWS. EVERYTHING. He cannot be deceived; The Lord knows the feelings and motives we have yet to express verbally. He sees our hearts contents.
He is Jehovah El Roi. The God who sees me. (Genesis 16:13)
We can make people believe anything we want with our words or with our actions but the Lord searches our heart and mind (Jeremiah 17:10). Scripture also says, “Men do not see what the Lord sees. Men see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7)
The Lord knows our intentions.
When I was younger, for some reason my favorite Bible story was the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-10 (an odd favorite I know, especially for a child ::shrugs:: ). Ananias and Sapphira sold land and intended in their hearts to try and deceive the Lord, by bringing a portion of the proceeds instead of the full amount. The instant Ananias laid the money at the feet of the apostles, without a word from Ananias the Holy Spirit revealed the deception to Peter–and Ananias dropped dead. Soon after Sapphira, his wife came in not knowing what happened to her husband, kept the lie going, when asked about the sale amount- she lied, dropped dead and was buried with her husband. Older now, the key take away from this story is you cannot fool or deceive the Lord. While this is an extreme case it shows that your heart, feelings, motives and intentions are transparent before the Lord. He sees them clearly.
If God hears our intentions as clearly as He hears our prayers than we must be sure our intentions line up with our words and actions.
Ask yourself -when I pray, is my heart really in this? Do I really intend to follow through once I receive? Are my hearts intentions and the words I am praying saying the same thing?
It’s so easy to pray and list out needs and desires because it feels good or because it’s the “right prayer” to pray at a particular point in our lives, yet our hearts are not in it.
We know that God answers prayer in His own time, in His own way, as He said“My ways are not your ways, neither are My thoughts your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8). But could it be that perhaps, some of our prayers remain unanswered because the Lord hears our conflicting hearts intentions louder than the words we pray?
Would your intentions line up with your actions after you receive what you have been praying for? Will you remain faithful in tithing or look for opportunities to sow after you get that financial breakthrough, when your original prayer was “Lord bless me so I can be a blessing?
Maybe we haven’t been delivered from that situation we’ve been praying about because the Lord knows once we come out, we would find ourselves back in the same situation. Deep down we have not yet had enough of that dead end relationship and we’d still rather not be alone. We want the promotion, but we really don’t want to do next level work. We ask for deliverance with our mouths, but our heart and intentions are saying, “mmmm, I’m good here thanks!”
We call Him our Lord & Savior, but have no intentions of leaving that sinful life behind and walking righteously as He has called us to. (Luke 6:46)
#intentioncheck
The Lord is interested in answering prayer that will bring Him glory, prayers that will cause you to tell everyone about Him, prayers that will move His cause forward, prayers that are aligned with His purposes.
Many of us struggle with what I call the Spirit of Follow Through. We pray the prayers, maybe even have the right intentions but lack the commitment to follow through in action once we receive. We have to be committed from the moment that desire rises up in our hearts, to praying the prayer, to receiving it, acting on it and beyond. We must follow through. We must be sure our intentions, prayers, and actions are aligned. (Help us do better Lord!!)
The Lord sees our heart, He knows our intentions, and we cannot make Him believe what is not in our hearts. He hears our intentions as clearly as our prayers.
As we continue this walk may we always check our intentions, may our intentions say the same thing as the words we speak and the actions we take.