Always Look to the Heart

"Acts 14:8-28

Your heart can be full of joy in spite of outward circumstances

Joy comes from the heart and is not necessarily connected with your outward circumstances. Sometimes you face difficulties in life, not because you are doing something wrong, but because you are doing something right.

Paul faced huge difficulties but was filled with joy because he was doing something right and making a massive difference to the world.

He was conducting the first deliberate evangelistic campaign into the Gentile world. It was this that led to Christianity becoming not just a Jewish sect, but a world ‘religion’. God ‘used them to throw the door of faith wide open so people of all nations could come streaming in’ (v.27, MSG).

Paul speaks of ‘all that God had done through them’ (v.27). Yet outwardly the odds were stacked against him. He appeared very unimpressive (2 Corinthians 10:10). One description of Paul’s physical appearance at this time (in a second-century document called ‘The Acts of Paul and Thecla’) describes him as ‘a man little of stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows joining, and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace: for sometimes he appeared like a man, and sometimes he had the face of an angel.’

He not only looked unimpressive but he suffered from some physical illness (Galatians 4:13). In addition to all this, his body must have been battered and bruised by all the physical persecution he had suffered. On this occasion, the crowd beat him unconscious and left him for dead (Acts 14:19).

Like so many who have followed in Paul’s footsteps, in spite of all his physical suffering, his heart was full of joy, and God worked through him. God used Paul in his weakness. This encourages us to believe that God can also work through us in our weakness.

This heartfelt joy is one of a variety of different kinds of hearts we see in this passage:

Faith-filled hearts

Paul followed the Lord’s example and looked at the heart. He saw ‘a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked’ (v.8). As Paul looked at him he saw his heart and ‘saw that he had faith to be healed’ (v.9). Sometimes God enables us to see into people’s hearts – to see that they have the faith to be healed, to be filled with the Spirit or to receive some gift.

Later we read of how God ‘opened the door of faith to the Gentiles’ (v.27). Faith is the key to salvation.

Fickle hearts

When the crowd saw the man healed they began treating Paul and Barnabas as gods. They pointed out, ‘We’re not gods!’ and that they were only human beings, bringing good news of ‘the living God’ to whom the crowd needed to turn (v.15). However, the hearts of the crowd were fickle. They were soon won over by Paul’s opponents and almost in an instant they went from trying to offer sacrifices to Paul to stoning him (vv.18–19).

Full-of-joy hearts

This was just one of the many ‘hardships’ (v.22) that Paul and his companions went through. Yet Paul can speak of how God ‘fills your hearts with joy’ (v.17). Again, he is saying that the inside is so much more important than the outside.

Paul ‘strengthened’ and ‘encouraged’ the disciples in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch (vv.21–22). The way he encouraged and strengthened them was not by saying that the Christian life was easy. Paul tells them that although their sins were behind them, their troubles were ahead of them. He says, ‘Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times’ (v.22, MSG). Jesus did not come to make life easy; he came to make people great.

Lord, thank you so much for the inspiring example of those like the apostle Paul and many who have followed in his footsteps. Whatever the outward appearance or circumstance, may my heart be full of joy. May I not judge people or situations by how they look from the outside, but like you, always look to the heart."

1. Thank You greatly Lord for real examples of heroes. May my heart be indeed full of joy.

2. Thank You Lord for a busy but good day with tackling variety of tasks.

3. Thank You for the sharing of good stories from the past.