There is a song we sing at devotionals with the above title – “Listen to our hearts.” I like the song. It is heart-warming and sentimental. It gives you “warm fuzzies.” However, there is a line in the chorus I find a little troublesome.
The chorus is: “So listen to our hearts, and hear our spirits sing – A song of praise that flows from those You have redeemed. We will use the words we know to tell you – What an awesome God You are. But words are not enough to tell You of our love, So listen to our hearts.”
It is true that when we can’t find the words to express our hearts’ yearnings amid distress and turmoil, the Holy Spirit can take our thoughts to the Father. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:26-27: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
The song, however, suggests that the intentions of our hearts can make up for the lack of verbal expression. It’s that idea that I find somewhat disturbing. If words cannot express the love we have for God, He ought to look at our actions. “But words are not enough to tell You of our love, So look at my behavior.” That’s more biblical, it seems to me.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” Jesus said in John 14:15. We show our love for God, not by having lofty intentions but concrete, visible behaviors of obedience. Look at the connection between love and action in the law of Moses: “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 11:13).
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Here’s the connection during the days of Joshua: “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul” (22:5).
Jesus again makes the same connection between love and service in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The same is true with our interpersonal relationships, Paul says in Galatians 5:13: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
If we want to show God that we love Him, we need to love what He loves and serve as Jesus wants us to do. Worship on the first day of every week with all of its attendant actions. Evangelize. Defend the truth. Serve our fellow man.
To paraphrase a statement by Jesus from Luke 7:35: “Love is justified by all her actions.”
–Paul Holland
