Laying it to Heart

Laying it to Heart
by Pete Berardi

In this world image is a very important thing. At work we must put up a professional image in front of customers, our supervisors and fellow employees. This image that we put up is for the most part fake. We must learn to fake smile and even though we do not like the customers that walk into the store, we must make them think that we like them. In the prophecy of Malachi specifically, other prophecies and in the preachings of Jesus, this is referred to as hypocrisy. A person is a hypocrite when his heart is on one thing but his lips are on another. The people in the prophecy of Malachi were being hypocrites by thinking that they could just go through the motions of sacrificing to God. They were not offering God the best of the best. It is apparent from the following verse that God wants sincerity and a sacrifice of the heart and not just the lips.

Malachi 2:2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay [it] to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay [it] to heart.

Our social lives can also put image first. It is important to appear happy or well off even though we are not. As humans, we have a desire to make people believe that we are better off than we actually are. We may be able to fool people, but we cannot fool God. What is more important though is that we do not need to fool God. God loves us for who we are. Putting up an impression for God is not only futile but unnecessary. Consider the verse in Psalms.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they although they were the priests of the temple, their heart was not in the right place. Consider this saying from the mouth of Jesus in the book of Matthew:

Mat 15:7,8 [Ye] hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with [their] lips; but their heart is far from me.

Living a lie is no way to live. The Bible states that the truth shall set you free. By being honest with God, yourself, and other people, we can be truly free. This way we can lay everything to heart. Nothing has to be of the lips only, and we can live from our hearts.