“Search me, O God, and know my heart.” Psalm 139:23 NIV
“Until you allow God to redeem and rule your heart, it will remain unholy and unruly.”
My thoughts today are about “secrets of the heart.”
The heart! Who knows their own heart for sure? When it comes right down to it, none of us really know our own heart as well as we think we do. The prophet Jeremiah, wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart; I test the mind, even to give every man according to His ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 NKJV. The heart is the source from which both affections and actions come, often overruling your mind and misdirecting your will. Until God is allowed to redeem and rule your heart, it will remain unholy and unruly.
One’s heart, as used in Scripture, refers to something more than the physical organ that beats, pumping blood and life-giving oxygen to every part of your body. The Bible uses the word to describe an aspect of God’s wondrous creation even more spectacular and critical to your well-being – the central part of your inner being where God desires to dwell and rule righteously.
Your heart can lead you to God or turn you from Him. God begins in your heart to accomplish His work of redeeming, and cleansing, and changing you. “And I will give them singleness of heart (undivided) and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead, so they will obey My laws and regulations. Then they will truly by My people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20 NLT. Your heart has to be right before your relationship with God and others can be right.
Your heart’s cry must be as the Psalmist pleaded, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 NIV. Notice the sequence of verbs – “search, know, test, see, and lead?” Are you willing to invite him to “test” you? See 1 Timothy 5:24-25 NIV. God’s tests are to prevent you from failing the final exam – “. . his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day shall bring it to light . . I saw a great white throne . . the small and great standing before God, and books were opened . .” Read 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NIV/Revelation 20:11-15 NKJV.
God uses ordinary circumstances to expose repressed feelings, carefully controlled reactions, buried emotions, old grudges and resentments, hurtful jealousies, suppressed anger and fears, or habitual behaviors. Those tests in everyday life are not for God’s enlightenment, but to reveal the secrets of your heart for redemption, not destruction. God knows your heart; there are no secrets from Him hidden there. See Luke 12:1-3 NKJV. You may try to hide things there, but will not succeed. If invited, God will test your heart so that you will know what is hidden there in order to deal with it, inviting and allowing Him to cleanse and renew. Such an invitation – “Cleanse me from secret faults” – comes only from a heart disgusted with its secrets. Read Psalm 19:7-14 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is that your heart is clean and pure before God.