So let’s get down to it!!!
Today’s word is SEARCH!
Some definitions of today’s
word of the week include:
- Examine
- Ferret around/about for
- Fish around/about for
- Forage for
- Hunt
- Inquire diligently
- Look for
- Look high and low for
- Pursue
- Root around/about for
- Rummage around/about for
- Seek
God longs to have a reciprocally intimate and personal relationship
with us. WHOA…there’s one of those words I would have been looking up! For
those who might secretly be asking themselves, “recipro…what???” It means “having
the same qualities on both sides.” Good news is…His knowledge of each
of us is ALREADY intimate and personal. Just how intimate and personal,
you ask???
Let’s see how David
describes God’s knowledge of our heart:
God is:
- Acquainted with all my ways
- He comprehends my path and my lying down (in 2013 English, that means He’s with us day AND night)
- He’s hedged me behind and before
- He's laid His hand upon me
- He’s known me
- He knows my sitting down and my rising up
- He’s searched me
- He understands my thoughts afar off
Simply put, He’s pro-active and out there ready to
search and test His servants…not just anyone but those called to be His
servants. Does that include you? He knows your motives, desires and
words before they are expressed. But before we start going down a rabbit trail
about our every crazy life moment & thought playing out on a big screen in
the Throne Room in Heaven, remember that the purpose of God’s intimate
knowledge of His servants is protective and helpful not judgmental and condemning.
In Job 23:8-10,
even Job in the worst of times, KNEW God knew everything about Job. He couldn’t
see God but Job knew there wasn’t anything about himself that God didn’t
already know to the most intimate detail.
In reference to the possibility of forgetting the name of
God or stretching our hands out to a foreign god, the Psalmist asks in Ps. 44:21: “Would not God SEARCH this out? For He knows the secrets of
the heart.” (Emphasis added.)
And in Ps. 69:5
David cries out to God by saying God knows David’s foolishness and that David’s
sins are not hidden from God. I think it’s safe to say, David was talking for
each one of us ever created when he wrote those lines.
Even Job realized his knowledge of
God only skirted the very edge of God’s way. How often do we get caught up in
ourselves thinking “we’ve got it” – “me and God…we’re like this.” Oh, not in a
blatant “look at me…I got a Christmas card from God” sort of way but in a more
subtle “the other day, I was driving down the street and God told me to pull into
Kohl’s because there was a GREAT sale taking place” sort of way. Now God
“might, maybe, could” actually tell you about that fantastic sale, but chances
are more likely He’ll be SEARCHING your heart for the reason you
cut those two cars off trying to get over so you didn’t miss the turn for the
Kohl’s parking garage! To draw from Lesson 1, remember your FOCUS:
where is it?
So just how committed is God
to each of us?
Let’s turn to Psalm 139 vv 7-12. We read in that there is absolutely NO WHERE
we can go, be, or hide that He isn’t there. High/low, good/bad…He’s there.
Morning or night, summer or winter…He’s there! If we go back to the original
Hebrew (I know…scary to think about me rummaging around in Hebrew reference
books!), there are two different ways in which to understand the phrase “where
can I go.”
One
way is that David wanted to flee from the presence of God but couldn’t do so.
The other sees that phrase as a celebration of God’s mercy. There was no
place in all of creation where David…God’s servant, a man after God’s
own heart …would find himself separated from God’s presence.
Now when I got to v8 I had to take a few minutes to really think about the
thought of God being in hell. So, a little more research and I discovered that
most Bible scholars believe that hell would be the ONE place in the universe
where God would not be present BUT even though God is opposed to all
darkness, God would turn the darkness into light in order to find
His servant David…AND (but wait! there’s MORE!)…the Lord would overturn
the very structure of the universe to save the person who worshiped Him. How
could you just not fall to your knees in humble adoration when you think about
how much He loves you? Now, my husband would take a bullet for me…he’d walk
through fire for me…he’s nursed me back to health over the years and never
complained but I’m not entirely positive he’d go checking the bowels of hell
for me! I have to wonder if he would be asking himself, “What if I can’t get
back out?” But our Lord would go right down into the very recesses of hell,
pick me up and carry me out of there!
WOW!
So God knows all about us
and is committed to us but how can we keep ourselves aware of Him throughout
the day? (vv13-18)
It’s pretty personal really. For
me, I try to begin every day with prayer and the reading of His Word. I talk to
Him throughout the day, include Him in what I’m doing. In our line of work,
sometimes I wonder if one side of God’s robe is ragged from where I’m
repeatedly tugging on it while saying, “Oh, and don’t forget this client,
Lord…and this other one too!” I give Him praise as I see Him at work throughout
our day and end each day with prayer – telling Him about the day, praying for
special requests – just talking with my ultimate best friend!
Now…before you start thinking,
“Well, isn’t SHE perfect?” … that’s my intent and plan for each day…and most
days work out pretty close to that way. But sometimes…I…well, I oversleep…or my
day begins with a call from a client in crisis and it’s everything I can do to
throw on some clothes, smear on some make-up and head out the door for the
office…who has time for prayer at that moment? (I should!) Sometimes it’s 3 clients into
the day before I ask myself, “Did I brush my hair today?” Those are the moments
when I have to stop and REFOCUS on Him and what He wants of me. Those are the
moments when I have to stop and thank Him for getting me through the crisis.
I have a friend I’ve known since 8th
grade and we’ve managed to stay in touch with each other through all the years
and through hundreds of life’s milestones. We’ve been there for each other
through the deaths of our mothers. She and I can talk to each other for hours
and hours, never tiring of hearing about the events in the other’s life. She
knows almost everything about me…where MOST of the skeletons are buried…but
I’ve kept a little...ok maybe a big…secret piece of my life away from her. Now,
she’s never tried to dig it out of me because she doesn’t even know I have this
secret and I’m pretty sure she has a few secrets of her own but I’ve never
tried to dig them out of her either. She’d do anything for me and the feeling is
mutual. After all, she’s my best friend, after my husband; but even she doesn’t
know everything there is to know about me. Nor has she tried to figure out
everything about me. She’s content with what she knows at the moment. But my
Father in Heaven knows EVERYTHING about me…even that little dark secret
that not many people know. And yet He still loves me and it was He who
held me in His Arms when the events of that horrid secret were taking place.
He’s not content to just know me today, or on some superficial level of
“Donna’s favorite color is green, she loves Garth Brooks and she’d never turn
down a medium-rare New York steak smothered in mushrooms with a classic baked
potato”-kind of way. He MUST and DOES know all there is to know about me…and
that’s EXACTLY how I want it…or do I?
Think about this: Why is it
necessary for us to ask God to search our hearts?
BECAUSE WE CAN’T TRUST OUR OWN HEART!!! What? We
can’t trust the very heart God gave to each of us? In a word…NO. BUT WHY? (How
many times have we heard those words in our “Mommy-lives?” Because we’re
fickle! Prov. 28:26 tells us “WE can’t trust our OWN heart!!!”
Please read that passage with me:
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.
In Jer. 17:9 we’re
reminded that our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; we don’t even know
our own heart! I’m thinking there is a part of my heart that is waaaay beyond
fickle and I need to take this heart back to the Creator and ask Him to fix it;
remind Him that I’m one of those devices that given the opportunity to do
things on my own, I’ll always fail if I don’t have the correct FOCUS
and DIRECTION. Managing my heart requires input from the original
Manufacturer/Creator.
Again, back in Lesson 1 we learned
about what comes from the heart. Going back to Matt. 15:18-20 we’re
told, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the
HEART, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
Are you afraid to ask God to
search your heart?
Sometimes in counseling, we’ll have to ask our clients some pretty straight forward questions: “Is this a deal breaker for you”? “Do you still love your husband?” “When was the last time you used drugs or alcohol?” We could probably answer each of those questions with relative ease but what about the first question I asked? ARE YOU AFRAID TO ASK GOD TO SEARCH YOUR HEART? It’s not as simple as you might think. It requires complete and unfiltered honesty. He demands access to your thoughts, desires, wishes, deeds, comments…ALL OF YOU! Why are you afraid?
Or maybe you can honestly say, “I’m NOT afraid.” Yet have you given Him your all? Have you opened yourself up bare for Him to search your heart? Even that sneaky little corner, waaay in the back where the light never shines…yes THAT corner. He wants that part of you. He wants ALL OF YOU!
Sometimes in counseling, we’ll have to ask our clients some pretty straight forward questions: “Is this a deal breaker for you”? “Do you still love your husband?” “When was the last time you used drugs or alcohol?” We could probably answer each of those questions with relative ease but what about the first question I asked? ARE YOU AFRAID TO ASK GOD TO SEARCH YOUR HEART? It’s not as simple as you might think. It requires complete and unfiltered honesty. He demands access to your thoughts, desires, wishes, deeds, comments…ALL OF YOU! Why are you afraid?
Or maybe you can honestly say, “I’m NOT afraid.” Yet have you given Him your all? Have you opened yourself up bare for Him to search your heart? Even that sneaky little corner, waaay in the back where the light never shines…yes THAT corner. He wants that part of you. He wants ALL OF YOU!
Ask yourself…why give 80,
90, 95, even 98% of yourself to God yet still cling to that last teenie, tiny
lint ball of sin? I had a client tell me about 3 months ago that she was “kinda
off drugs.” I replied with, “hmmm, that sounds“kinda pregnant.” In each case,
it’s an all or nothing sort of activity. Either you’re off drugs or you’re
still using drugs; either you’re pregnant or you aren’t. There’s no middle
ground…no 25% pregnant!
With God, we’re either in
or we’re out. Not an essay question…He just wants us completely not because He
wants to deprive us of some great “things” we think we might need. NO…it’s
because He longs to bless us.
So, are there benefits to
asking God to search our hearts?
I have to tell you I am
passionately in love with our God. He not only shows me what’s wrong BUT
THEN corrects me and leads me in the way everlasting! I KNOW with all of my
HEART that I will have fellowship with Him forever because He corrects me and
leads me according to His Will.
The last two verses of Ps. 139 end with the words now etched into our brains: “Search
me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxieties; And see if there is
any wicked way in me; And lead me in the way everlasting”.
The benefit to asking God to search my heart? I don’t
have to settle for tugging on an imaginary robe when I pray. I get everlasting
life with the real thing – the Creator of the Universe – my Father, my Savior,
my Holy Spirit and Comforter. He longs to protect us and be helpful. Our hearts
and minds cannot fathom all that He has in mind for us in eternity.
Oh Lord, when I think upon
these things, my heart can’t help but cry out, “Search my heart, O God…Lead
me in the way everlasting!”
I again encourage each of
you as you study through each weekly lesson. I am praying daily for each of you
that God will open your heart and your mind to a new and greater understanding
of His Word as you go through each lesson. That change He began last week…it’s
a work in progress. I encourage some of you to share with us each Thursday, or
via email to the group, as the Lord leads, how He has begun a new work in your
life. It won’t always be easy but you’ll never find yourself alone. You’re in
the palm of His Hand…all the way!
Til next week…I love you all!
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