Since the heart is only known by God, how can we be SURE?

[Rico]

The thread reminded me of someone I once knew. His name is Joe. Joe was the kind of person who went about conning any church willing to listen to whatever said story he could tell. He would invent a story, tell it to a church pastor, and then proceed to con the church out of as much money as he could. Joe pulled his scam on several of the apostolic churches in the area where I once lived.

As fate would have it, the Lord finally got a hold on Joe and he repented with tears and the whole nine yards. His repenting happened at the church I was attending, so this is where he started his true walk with the Lord. He came to me a few months after his conversion (we had become friends) upset because no one would believe he had really changed. His reputation as a church scammer had preceeded him and he just could not seem to overcome it. He said to me, "Rico, I don't understand why no one will believe that I have repented. The Lord knows my heart is pure and that I have truly repented."

I explained to him that people do not have the same abilities that God has. God can look right into our core and tell if we are sincere. People do not have that ability. It would take us more time to see who he had become on the inside. I told him he just needed to be patient, because eventually who he had become on the inside would be visible on the outside. It was only natural for people to be skeptical of him because, afterall, his target for scams had always been churches, and he had scammed some of the apostolic churches in the area and people knew about it. He understood what I was saying to him, but he was still very disappointed. He wanted everyone to see the new man, not the old man.

I said all that to say this: We need to be careful in our perceptions of the people around us. We may feel we are right on target with someone and not have the ability to see who a person really is. My suggestion would be for us to be cautiously optimistic with people, especially new converts. It may take months, or even years, for them to completely shed the after effects of who they were prior to conversion. We need to use wisdom and Godly discernment. This is one reason why we need mature saints in our churches who have exercised their spiritual senses.