Jeremiah 12:3a English Standard Version (ESV) But you, O Lord, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you.

It is not our mind being tested but our hearts.

When we first come to Christ our minds made a choice to place our faith in Christ. How we came to know about Christ was an intellectual pursuit. We heard the expression “I gave my heart to Christ” and we probably believed that to be true without understanding that at the time our hearts were not making the decisions.

The heart wants what the heart wants is a secular saying that indicates desire is not controlled by the rational mind. Now we must reconcile following our hearts in righteousness when all we knew about our hearts was desires of the flesh.

If we have come to understand that God is a God of order then let us look at this order.

Mark 12:30 English Standard Version (ESV) And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

The focal point is love and the order is heart, soul, mind and then strength. Matthew’s quote leaves out strength, but I shall quote Mark for this purpose, to indicate ability.

Isaiah 57:15 English Standard Version (ESV) For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,     who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

This is a promise of God. He broke our hearts in order to dwell with us.

Colossians 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Christ’s intention is to rule in our hearts without taking away free will. Love has to be a choice. If we are going to love God with all our heart we will need to choose His will over ours.

When we lose the peace of Christ, we have not chosen His will, perhaps because we did not know it, or because we are not willing to obey by faith.

I pray it is because we did not know His will.

Romans 12:2 English Standard Version (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In our hearts we want to know God’s will in order to be obedient servants. The renewed mind has to be tested to discover if in fact we are “getting the message”.

Since the flesh opposes the Spirit it appears to be a lifelong battle in search of the truth that already abides in us.

My pastor once told me “You keep shooting yourself in the foot.” He was right and no one had ever said that to me before. There was a condition of my mind that was hampering me from hearing God’s will, whether good, acceptable or perfect.

I was born with Asperger’s Syndrome. It is hereditary and not something I could understand or control without coming to terms with my condition.

Sometimes what is wrong with us goes deeper than our emotions, sometimes it really is in our DNA. Asperfer’s is on the spectrum of autism. No one wants to admit they are autistic if they do not understand what that means and what it involves. It is a truth we do not want to hear.

Ignoring the truth does not change it.

Ignoring God’s will does not change it either.

I thank God that He did not leave it up to me.

What is troubling to the mind is the associated memories that helped us in our old life that do not help us now. When we see the word test, we think of tests that are pass/fail and we wait anxiously for the test results, apprehensive about our performance.

Jeremiah 12:3a English Standard Version (ESV) But you, O Lord, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you.

It is not our mind being tested but our hearts.