Recently, I’ve been praying for better opportunities to serve other people.

And I got a super clear impression of what to do.

But things kept coming up and getting in the way.

And then I got sick and needed to stay away from other people.

And it just kept snowballing into roadblock after roadblock!

Finally I thought to myself: Am I really being delayed, or am I just using this as an excuse not to follow my prompting?

Pretty clearly, I felt the Spirit’s warmth.

“I know your intentions. You want to serve. Life is just messy right now.”

I felt this peace that God knew completely that my heart was in the right place, and He also knew all the honest obstacles I kept facing.

The people around at Noah’s time were not good.

And it wasn’t just because of their actions.

We learn that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)

So they did bad things, but they also had evil intentions!

And God knew what the thoughts of their heart were.

Now sometimes, this is so comforting, like my current debacle with trying to fulfill a social service-related prompting that keeps hitting roadblocks.

I get credit for having good intentions!

But on the opposite end, God also knows when I do things with bad intentions.

He knows if that rude comment was said ignorantly or purposefully.

He knows if I decided to skip something important because it was too much for me mentally, or if I just wanted to get out of it.

Of course, our actions matter!

But only God knows the intentions behind our actions.

For better, and for worse.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The thoughts of my heart  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.