Know My Heart

Psalms 139:23-24 ESV

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!

    Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting!”

What are some circumstances which come to your mind where you might be led to pray this prayer? One of the ones which comes to my mind is when I am being falsely accused of things I know I did not do, or that I believe I did not do. Sometimes the flesh rises up within me, and emotionally and maybe even verbally I resist that accusation without even praying about it first. So then I have to humble myself and pray this prayer.

And I have to ask the Lord if there is any truth at all to what the other person is saying about me. For, as you know, we can be blinded to some things going on in our own lives and minds and attitudes and behaviors, but this is not talking about deliberate and habitual sin. We know we are doing wrong if we choose to consciously disobey the Lord. What I am talking about are those hidden faults that we don’t see that King David talked about.

For sometimes other people can see things in us that we can’t see. Now this is not saying that they are always right or that they are always wrong, but sometimes, too, they are not seeing clearly with the right kind of vision, for they may be judging us according to worldly standards, and by themselves, and by the culture, and by their traditions, and by their own prejudices, and by their own faulty way of thinking regarding how things ought to be.

So, don’t resist them unless it is blatantly obvious that what they are saying is not true, but take what they say to the Lord in prayer and ask the Lord if what they are saying about you is true. Ask the Lord to examine your heart and to show you what is in your heart and in your thinking and your attitudes. And sometimes the Lord will show you things you did wrong and/or that you need to confess and work on and change.

And if someone gives you good counsel, don’t be prideful and resist it. Now, be discerning about the counsel you receive, for not all counsel is godly, and not all counsel is of God, and not all counsel is going to fit with your particular set of circumstances. But we all need to send all counsel we receive through God’s spiritual lens and let him show us what he wants us to do, for even some good counsel may not be what God has for us to do.

And that brings me to another situation, and that has to do with voices in our heads, which can be the voice of God, the voice of Satan who loves to attack us in our minds, or the voice of people from our past who said hurtful things to us, or the voice of the world. We can hear all these voices speaking to us in our minds, not all of them, and not all the time, but God is not the only voice we hear in our minds.

And so we have to sort out these voices we hear and pray and ask God what is of him and what is not, and it isn’t always that clear, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so what he whispers in our ears may not always be obvious that it is coming from the enemy of our souls, for he doesn’t always lead us to obvious sins, but he may just try to distract us, or to try to make us feel guilty when we have nothing to feel guilty about.

Anyway, we have to test all voices we hear speaking to us, whether they are verbal or they are just in our minds. And we need to pray for spiritual discernment and for the Lord to show us what is from him and what is not. For sometimes those voices that speak to our minds are not of God, and they may put doubts and fears in our minds, or they may try to lead us in the wrong direction, so we need the Lord to try us and show us the truth.

And then we need to pray for the Lord to lead us in the right direction. For, again, we are going to have all kinds of voices speaking to us, and some of them may be accusing us falsely while others may be trying to give us counsel, and some of them may be helping us to see what we cannot see about ourselves. So we need the help of the Lord to sort this all out so that we can follow the Lord and his leading, and not go the wrong direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8tFC8iD14

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Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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