Earlier this week one of the passages I read was Psalms 139:23-24 which offers this prayer “Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart’ Test me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.
I can recall the first time I ever heard this Psalm; I was intimidated, and I was fearful. I mean think about that, inviting God in to examine your heart and your thoughts, that is huge, right? But as I thought about, and prayed about it and frankly matured some, it this means much more than that. It is admitting how much we need God; that we need the Father’s presence so desperately. What we are doing is calling on God to come into our heart and our mind and our life to examine us and then to lead us. When we offer this prayer, we are asking God to reconcile with us, to bring us close to Him and His ways, to God’s eternal ways. To a life that is ruled by God’s faithful love and a life that fills us with hope and offer us peace.
Know that Gods love, the hope and peace that God brings into our lives does not start at the tip of our extended finger. Peace begins with each of us and with this prayer. O God come search me, examine me, and lead me out of the ways of this word and into your eternal ways, your ways of love, of grace and of peace. When we begin to truly experience this life it is like filling a cup to overflowing slowly the water isn’t just contain within the cup, it moves beyond, it covers all that surrounds it.
Similarly, when we know God’s love, through the Son, Jesus Christ, the walls of our heart are broken down and that love, that grace and that peace fills us to overflowing, we begin to cover those who are near to us, those who surround us, but it all starts with you.
I encourage you to read the 139th Psalm and pray over it, pray this prayer; Search me O God and know my heart, test me, and know my thoughts, and lead me in Your everlasting way, and asP you know that He is our peace.