Six Questions That Help Us Understand Our Heart and Motives

The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). It is possible for our hearts to lie to us and lead us away from God. Dr. David Feddes teaches that there are six questions that can evaluate our hearts and motives. These questions have helped me greatly, and I share them in our devotional today. As we read them, let us prayerfully consider if they point to any areas in our lives that need adjustment.

1.What desires move you?

Do you have a longing for God, or an allergy to God? Do you have a cosmic authority
problem, a built-in resistance against anyone ruling you? More broadly, what are your main desires in life, and how do those desires shape the way you think?

2. What worries or scares you?

What are the things that you fear? Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). If your heart is full of worries and fears, it affects your mind.
You may focus so much on lesser fears that you don’t ever fear what will happen to you
if you live and die without God. You may have a hard time believing some biblical truths
that upset you or that bother you. Looking at what you fear reveals a lot about your heart.

3. What are your inclinations?

This is hard to explain exactly, but what’s your tilt? We approach some important ideas
and discussions with a tilt in a certain direction. Certainly in the realm of politics, people
tilt one way or another way. Some ideas get a better hearing if those ideas match your tilt, but other ideas are rejected without consideration because you tilt in a different direction.
You might tilt rightward, you might tilt leftward, but we all have a tilt—and not just in
politics. When your heart considers God and the things of God, what’s your tilt? Do you
lean toward God or away? What are your inclinations?

4. What makes you feel happy?

What makes you laugh? What makes you feel good about life? That tells you a lot about
your heart. Even many Christians, or people who profess to be Christians, will talk of the
right doctrines and do a few things that they think will qualify them for heaven, but in
their overall life most of their joy is not from a relationship with God or with God’s people. They get most of their happiness from all sorts of things that seemingly have nothing to do with the reality of Jesus Christ. Their heart is very attached to this world, and they have not set their hearts above where Christ is. If your heart is set on Christ, then your greatest happiness comes from growth in personal knowledge of Christ.

5. What hidden hurts haunt you?

Every heart is affected by hidden hurts. Some people were neglected as children. Some
had an overly demanding parent. Some were mistreated or molested. Other kinds of
terrible wounds have left their mark on the heart. Maybe it occurred in adulthood. You
went through a divorce or through some other crisis experience. Heart wounds don’t just
leave you with certain thoughts; those wounds cut deep into your heart, wounds so deep
that you might avoid thinking about them. You mind may shove these wounds into a dark corner and not give them much conscious attention, and yet the hidden hurt of your heart shapes your mind, making you less able to trust, less able to believe some things, less able to see what’s good in others, less able to believe that God is real or that God is good.
Hidden hurts of the heart can make you see the whole world through dark colored lenses and hinder your mind’s ability to grasp what is bright and beautiful. When you look at yourself, you may believe that you are inferior and worthless. Is that an intellectual thought based on data and proof, or is it an idea that oozed out of a heart wound?

6. What directs your decisions?

When you must make a choice about something, do you just make up your mind as you
see fit, or do you pray about it first and ask God to lead you? Do you ask yourself, “What
guidelines or principles in the Bible can lead me in this decision?” Or do you just try to figure things out on your own without considering Scripture? Your approach to decision-making reveals a lot about your heart. If you’re a Christian and someone asks you if prayer and Bible reading are important, you might say, “Yes.” But if, in your actual decisions, God is barely a factor, you have a heart problem. Your head may contain some Bible teachings, but if your actual choices are made on your own, then your heart and will are not in touch with God. And when it comes to truly believing Christian teaching, your head will have a hard time holding Christian beliefs over the long term if your heart has a habit of making decisions independently of God.

Prayer: Lord today we pray that you give us a heart like yours. Reveal our hearts to us through the six questions above. Forgive us for any places we have not let you lead or guide us. Heal us Lord, and make our hearts forever inclined towards you. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray. Amen!