You Know My Heart

You Know My Heart

Psalm 139:23-24 NLT

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

How often do we trust someone enough to invite them so deeply into our lives that they would truly know us? What are the things that you hide from you family and friends? What do you try to hide from God?

Hiding things from people takes a lot of work. Often times this leads to not telling the whole truth about something or just flat out lying. Either way it is lying. Maybe you just stretched the truth a little bit. Again, that is lying. Then there comes the task of keeping all of the half-truths and lies straight. And what if you get caught, then what? Do you make up another lie to cover it up? That has to be exhausting!

Guess what? God knows. There is nothing about us that God doesn’t know. How could He not, He created us. So why do we need to invite Him to search us and know our hearts? Being a parent makes this a little easier to understand. As parents we want our children to come to us with what is going on in their lives. We want to know their hurts, their joys and their pain. We want to celebrate with them. We want to hold them and just love them.

When reading these two verses I was struck with the thought that it is more for us than for God. We are opening up to God by asking Him to search us, to know our hearts, to test us and point out what offends Him so that He can lead us down a better path. By opening up like this we are letting God, who has always been right there, into our lives. We are saying let the Holy Spirit guide and direct our hearts and actions. It also allows us to then truly live out the greatest commandments that Jesus teaches us in Matthew 22 and Mark 12:

Matthew 22:37-40 – ³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Mark 12:29-31 – ²⁹ Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. ³⁰ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

When we live out these two commandments then all the others fall into place without having to work at it. It is when we work at it that we fail because we are trying to do it under out own power instead of God’s. Then and only then will we be able to put behind us lust, fear, greed, hatred, selfishness … sin. It is then that we will be on the ‘path of everlasting life.’

Father thank you that You want a relationship with us. Thank you for always being there with us and for us. It is with a truly repentant heart that we come to you. That we ask You to search our hearts and point out the things that offend You. Holy Spirit come and give us a heart like Christ’s. Thank you Jesus for taking our sins so that we can spend eternity in heaven. Amen!