Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23-24

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 in the path of everlasting life.

Have you ever had someone in your life that knew you so well and that you could trust so much that you felt they knew your heart? Someone that you knew even when you said something stupid or totally messed up that person would filter your words and actions through what they knew your heart to be? I have been blessed with one such friendship in my life and it is amazing the freedom that comes from this friendship. When you have this freedom you know you can let your guard down and relax. You can trust them to see the real you and know they will love you warts and all. Friendships like this are truly a treasure, but even better is when we have that relationship with God.

How many of us trust God enough to really say to God- search me and know my heart as David did in Psalm 139:23-24?  So often we would rather not have God know our hearts at all. We don’t want God to look too deep, afraid of what He might see. It might be ok for Him to look at our behavior, because some of us have managed to learn how to behave even when our hearts are wrong.  Even when we are behaving well we don’t want him to know what is really going on in our hearts. We definitely don’t want him to test us, or examine us, and know our anxious thoughts and point out anything in us that offends Him. We want to fly under the radar with God because we don’t trust Him enough to believe He loves us warts and all.

Many times we think God wants only perfection from us and can not love us when we are flawed. In our skewed vision we think that He is a God way up there waiting to judge us and maybe zap us with lightning once or twice to show us He is boss. We think God thinks as the world thinks and therefore we do not trust Him. We look at God as only the God of judgment and so we do not really trust Him with our hearts. We may read verses such as Matthew 5:48 that tell us to be perfect even as our heavenly father is perfect and so we give up hope. How can we be perfect? The world tells us that perfect is flawless or without shortcomings. As long as we are on this earth we will always have things in our behavior, thoughts, and spiritual life we have to deal with. Trying to reach the world’s definition of perfect may be impossible, but in the Strong’s concordance we see that perfect means to have human integrity, virtue, and maturity. These are not things you have immediately or get over night they are something you grow into.   

Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14 that he had not already reached perfection, but that he was pressing towards that perfection. God knows that we are born with a sin nature. He knows that naturally our hearts are bent towards evil. In Matthew 15:19 it says, that from the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander. God knows those things are what are naturally in our hearts. The beauty of it is that God has not left that as the end of the story. We are born with these things in our hearts, but they do not have to define us for the rest of our lives. In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 the Word tells us that we are made new creatures if we are in Christ and as new creatures God has reconciled us with Him. It also says that God made Jesus to be sin for us so that we could be righteous. In Romans 12:2 it says that we should be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we will know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

God knows we have not attained perfection. He knows everything about us. In Psalm 139:1-7 we see that David said God knew everything about him. When he stood up, sat down, traveled, and stayed at home- God even knew what he was going to say before he said it. Then he said that God went before him and followed him and placed His hand of blessing on David’s head. Later on in the chapter verse 17 says, How precious are your thoughts about me, O God, they cannot be numbered. David trusted God to search his heart because David knew that God completely knew him. David knew that God not only knew him, but had precious thoughts about him. David was not perfect. David was an adulterer and a murderer, but David repented and turned to God for forgiveness, so David could have confidence that God loved him even though God knew him. David knew that to be right with God he had to trust God enough to let God point out the things in David’s life that offended God and allow God to lead him in the path of everlasting life.

We are not left without hope. When we try and do good, be good, and attain perfection on our own we might feel hopeless, but that is not God’s plan for us.  2 Peter 1:3-4 says, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

God has given us the means to live a life pleasing to Him. We can not use the fact that “God knows our hearts” as an excuse to act however we want because God knows we are a good person. God does know our hearts and He knows when we are truly maturing and trying to do better. He knows when we are honoring Him only with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him (Matthew 5:18), or when we are pressing on towards that perfection (Philippians 3:12-14). We can trust God because God already knows us. God knows when we are having good days and when we are having bad days, when you are experiencing a season of joy or a season of heartbreak. God knows you and loves you anyway and He is giving you what you need in this season to live a life of godliness right now- in the good and bad, joy or pain, single or married, mountain top or valley below. Trust God; seek God, ask God to show you what you need to change so that you can live a life free of offence to Him. Ask Him to create in you a clean heart and renew a loyal spirit within you (Psalm 51:10). God’s thoughts towards you are precious (Psalm 139:17) and He loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

There may not be many people in this world that we can trust our hearts to. People may let us down and hurt us. They may not always understand the motives behind our actions or words, but God does. He knows our innermost thoughts and he understands our outward actions. He sees our imperfections, but see us as perfect and righteous through His son Jesus Christ when we trust Him enough to allow Him to examine our hearts and point out what we need to change. Seek God today and ask Him to help you grow towards perfection and maturity in Him.