Haggai 1-2 / Revelation 11 / Psalm 139 / Proverbs 30:15-16
God wants to have such a deep friendship with us that we allow Him to reveal to us the deepest, hidden places of our hearts. Because God sees and knows all things, He is fully aware of our motives and hidden sins. However, since God loves us fiercely, His knowledge of our imperfections is balanced with His love. Because we are His, He will never destroy us when He finds wrong motives within us.
Instead of scolding us to maturity, He chooses to love and forgive us in our growth. He knows that we will be drawn by His kindness and love, therefore, He always leads with love. His people are lavished with love while his enemies are left with His anger and disapproval.
Psalm 139 is an intimate look at the relationship between God and us: between the Creator and His creation. There is an invitation in the last two verses that we will focus on today. Psalm 139:23-24 in the New Living Translation, (NLT)says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
How many of us are brave enough to pray that prayer? Maybe we are brave on the surface, but when it comes to sitting in our secret place with our heavenly Father, we may suddenly find ourselves to be shy. If we truly take the time to consider the words in these two verses, we may hesitate to make them into a prayer.
May I suggest we start small? What if we began with just the first phrase: Search me, O God, and know my heart? Then allow Him to search and know. Since He already knows, this will be more a revelation for you than for Him. Don’t be surprised if you hear Him tell you a few things He sees.
He won’t tell you to condemn you or make you feel bad. He will show you what He shows you because He sees how it’s hurting you. And when something is hurting you, that causes Him great pain. For those of you who have children, you know how difficult it is to see them suffer.
When our children are feeling lonely, sad, angry, frustrated, or hurt, or when they are sick and there’s nothing, we can do to make them feel better, we get a glimpse into how our heavenly Father feels when we are suffering. I promise He feels the same (and greater) affection for you than you do for your children.
After you have allowed Him to search you, and to tell you a few of the things He finds, consider continuing the prayer one phrase at a time. It may take you several days to work through these two verses. There is nothing wrong with taking plenty of time to pray through these verses. Especially when we consider we are growing massively in doing so.
Once you’ve made it to the end of these two verses, you’ll be reminded that your reward is eternal life. Eternal life is yours through Jesus Christ, not because you got all the answers correct on the test! Eternal life is yours because you are His and He loves you!
