Are we willing to let God show us our heart? I’m not sure I am. I want to be, but there’s something scary about seeing the real me. And I sure don’t want anyone looking over my shoulder.
One thing that really irritates me is when some clerk at the grocery check-out or the movie ticket booth calls me “sweetie.”
Why?—you ask. That’s so sweet. She’s just being nice.
I’ll tell you why.
How many times did a clerk call you “sweetie” when you were in your thirties or forties? “Sweetie” is a term for children and old people.
I don’t feel old, and I don’t think I look old until some pimply-faced kid calls me sweetie and asks if I want the senior citizen discount.
Sorry for the rant.
The truth of the matter is—we don’t really see ourselves. I’m talking about more than wrinkles and sagging skin now.
I remember my late husband complaining about one thing or another over our forty years of marriage.
Of course, I thought he was completely off the mark.
But about twenty years in, the Lord began to deal with me that if I was hearing the same complaint over and over again, maybe I should at least consider the possibility that there was some truth to it.
Facing up to the truth about ourselves isn’t easy.
Stop!
Some of you are about to click out of this message because you think it’s going to make you feel worse about yourself than you already do.
Please don’t.
I believe you’re going to be blessed because you’re going to learn what God really thinks about you (He thinks you’re perfect), and how He wants to help you.
Sometime after his tryst with Bathsheba, King David wrote these words.
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
The Hebrew definition of “search” is: examine intimately, penetrate, find out
Are we willing to let God search us, examine us intimately, get all up in our space—in order to find out what’s making us sick? I imagine it’s mostly women reading my blog, but if you’re a man, you might want to skip a few lines.
My gynecologist had a plaque on her wall explaining how to prepare for a mammogram.
I don’t remember it all, but it had something to do with slamming your breast in the refrigerator door–lying naked on the cement floor of your garage with your breast wedged beneath the rear tire and letting someone back the car up slowly—oh, and chilling two metal bookends overnight, stripping to the waist and having a perfect stranger squeeze your breast between them as hard as he/she could, then making an appointment to do it again next year.
Women know all about intimate examinations.
I suppose there’s a male version of that, but I don’t want to hear it (hands over ears)!
If we won’t allow a doctor to examine us, we’ll stay sick. Maybe even die. Better a little discomfort than that.
After asking God to search him, David continued “ . . . and know my thoughts . . .”
The Hebrew word translated “thoughts” means divided in mind.
In James1:8, the Bible tells us that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
The most dangerous way to be double-minded is to mix law and grace.
We weren’t born again by our works. Babies are just born. They don’t have much to do with the process. God chose us before the foundation of the world, and we believed Him and asked Him to come into our hearts. So, we began our Christian lives by faith. But then—we started thinking we could do the rest by ourselves.
The apostle Paul rebuked the Galatians for doing just that.
Galatians 3:2-3 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
When we begin to think we have anything at all to do with keeping ourselves saved, we’re in big trouble. That’s where pride comes in, and the Bible says, “Pride goes before a fall.”
Jesus paid the price on the cross for our salvation and there’s nothing we can add to it.
Hebrews 10:14 For by the one offering He has perfected forever and completely cleansed those who are being sanctified [bringing each believer to spiritual completion and maturity].
I told you he thinks you’re perfect.
Notice—he has (past tense) perfected forever and completely cleansed those who are being sanctified. Perfection and cleansing don’t come at the end of the sanctification process. We can’t be sanctified unless we’ve been cleansed and made perfect. It has nothing to do with our works. Sanctification is merely us living out in our flesh what is already in our spirit.
Just one more look at Psalms 139:24. “ . . . see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
The Hebrew definition of “wicked” isn’t what you might think it is. To us, it sounds like we’re asking God to check and see if we’re serial killers or something.
Wicked: (H86090 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance) pain (bodily or mental), sorrow. I like the CJB version of this scripture.
Psalms 139:24 See if there is in me any hurtful way, and lead me along the eternal way.
God wants to examine us so He can show us if the paths we are choosing will hurt us or others. I’ve been down a few of those paths. They seem to lead to good things, but in the end, they bring heartache, and we’d do anything to go back and change directions.
We can trust God. He is always working for our good.
Lord, thank you for your mercy. I give you permission (not that you need it) to do whatever is best for me. Dig around and find those things that keep me from pleasing you. Help my friends to be willing to let you search them as well. You are always right, and you always have our best interest at heart.
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