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“Prove me O Lord and try me; test my heart and my mind.”  Psalm 26:2 (ESV)

We love the look of our homes, cars and offices when not a speck of dust or mess is greeting us, yet cleaning doesn’t usually rank high on our list of likes.  Probably the reason we tend to skim the surface in a hurry when our overloaded list demands our attention. I’m sure none of us have ever stashed all things not dishes in the dishwasher just before company walked through our doors. Or what about dusting around all those things on the table in an effort to just get it done. Oh, the things we find when we eventually go beneath the surface and clean deep.

Sound familiar?  Keeping our lives clean can easily slip to an above the surface glance.  The deceptiveness of our hearts and our inability to discern our own errors leaves us with quite a mess. We would like to think we see within ourselves with untainted glasses; however, we are often blinded to our tendencies toward sin.  Jen Wilkins  (None Like Him)  states, “So unaware am I of my own sinful tendencies that I come to the sermon to sit in judgement on others, rather than to submit myself to judgement. So ignorant am I of my own bondage to a particular sin that I completely miss the word of correction being graciously extended – to me.”

Yes, we have all probably found ourselves pointing out who needs to hear “a message” versus settling in on what God is speaking into our lives.  Finger pointing is easy until we turn that finger inward and start examining our own hearts.  Problem is we are not good at that – we desperately need God’s light shining in us to reveal what needs to be changed.  We need His help to identify attitudes which keep resurfacing or repetitive behavior which doesn’t serve us well. We need His insight on how we devalue others or promote negative talk about self – we’re really good at this one.

Yes, we can find ourselves there – key is to slow down and ask God to examine our hearts.  We can trust the loving, graciousness of our Heavenly Father to not dump all on us at one time. He will guide us to truth and will pick us up, wash us off and redeem our lives.  We can never go wrong running into the arms of our Father. And that finger which was ever so quick to point in another direction welcomes the freedom found in being personally clean.

“Father, we are so good at resisting diving deep to acknowledge sin in our hearts.  Help us to work in conjunction with your Spirit to admit, confess and turn from anything which displeases You.”

For His Glory

Janet Martin
TRBC Women’s Life