2 Kings 1-2 / Acts 13:42-14:7 / Psalm 139 / Proverbs 17:19-21
Let’s have a little fun today. Let’s share our deepest darkest secrets with one another. You go first! No? I don’t understand why you don’t want me to know your dirt, your junk, your hidden issues. Hmph.
I’m sure none of us wants everyone to know our secrets, much less our deepest and darkest. You know – the things you think about that you hope no one ever finds out. Like that you wish so and so would choke on a chicken bone, or that person who wronged you would get what’s coming to them. Or that you wish you had your neighbor’s beautiful house or boat.
We want to be known as kind, good, people who would never hurt anyone, but the truth is there are times when our hearts are just plain evil. Jeremiah 17:9 says The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
I think there are times we don’t even realize the hidden things that are in our hearts. We’ve been hurt, rejected, etc. so we harbor those things and it causes our hearts to be not pure. All of us need emotional healing. And God is ready and waiting to provide that.
So, when one comes across verses like Psalm 139:23-24, we don’t need to get anxious and try to hide because God wants to heal us if we’ll let Him. Let’s look at these two verses in The Passion Translation.
God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way—the path that brings me back to you.
Some may think this is an invitation to a “this is everything you’ve done wrong” session, but if you’ll read carefully, it’s God’s way of finding the pain inside and bringing healing where it’s needed – including healing in our relationship with Him. Did you see the part where it says, “See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on”? That sounds like a plea for help!
This reminds me of the fairy tale I heard as a child of Androcles and the Lion. Here’s one account of the story…
Androcles is a runaway slave of a former Roman consul administering a part of Africa. He takes shelter in a cave, which turns out to be the den of a wounded lion, from whose paw he removes a large thorn. In gratitude, the lion becomes tame towards him and henceforward shares his catch with the slave.
After three years, Androcles craves a return to civilization but is soon imprisoned as a fugitive slave and sent to Rome. There he is condemned to be devoured by wild animals in the Circus Maximus in the presence of an emperor who is named in the account as Gaius Caesar, presumably Caligula. The most imposing of the beasts turns out to be the same lion, which again displays its affection toward Androcles. After questioning him, the emperor pardons the slave in recognition of this testimony to the power of friendship, and he is left in possession of the lion.
If we are likened to the lion, and God is likened to Androcles, you will see that God in His mercy only wants to show His great love to us by removing the things from our lives that are harming us. Once God has healed and comforted us, we are grateful to Him for the rest of our days.
I encourage you to pray this prayer, remembering it is for your healing that God included in scripture these words by the Psalmist.
