Skip to main content

Search Me...


Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139: 23-24)
          The other day, I got to write about Joshua 1:9, one of my favorite verses. Today, I get to write about a passage that is in one of my favorite psalms. For a long time, I didn’t like this passage. I mean, read it! Search me? God? Search me? Um, no thank you. If God knew my heart, He’d know how corrupt it is. If He knew my anxious thoughts, He’d be embarrassed that He ever even considered having anything to do with me. Lightning bolt? Sulfur and hellfire? Yes, those would be more likely. And when He found the offensive ways in me – too many to count – well, what could He do but shake His head and turn away? Can we just stop reading with verse 22? 
          As I said, I didn’t like this passage. Past tense. I can’t tell you when or how it changed. I just realized one day that it was suddenly very important that God search, test, know, see, and lead because I don’t want the offensive way to be there. At least when I think about it, the presence of the offensive way has become more painful than the idea of God’s dealing with it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

God's Servants

                 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Romans 13:6-7) Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (Preamble to the Declaration of Independence) This isn’t one of my favorite passages. I don’t consider myself good at most “people things,” and honor and respect are people things. I find it difficult to use honorifics. I’ll gladly refer to Mr. Trump, but struggle with President Trump. It has no...
Post a Comment
Read more