O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
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!
Psalm 139:1-4, 23-24 English Standard Version
“Help us to agree on what is true about who we are and where we are, God, so that we may agree on where to go and the best way to get there. Though we will not all look at our reality in the same way, help us to see the same reality and agree on its meaning for us, whether or not we like what we see. Otherwise, God, we will waste precious time and energy arguing from different assumptions…
“On my own it is not at all clear to me what is true, God. Often when I have felt the most certain, I have been deceived. So much in this world is merely a façade, not what it seems, and things change so fast that reality shifts like a moonlit shadow in the wind…
“I know that the truth tends to win in the long run, but I need to see it early enough to act wisely. Help us to understand our situation accurately so that we do not waste this opportunity for greatness. We want the truth because only the truth can free us to achieve our mission…
“Show us what is real, God. We have to know the truth.”
-- From Leadership Prayers, by Richard Kriegbaum
I am amazed that God knows every nook and cranny of my life and still loves me as He does. We are completely transparent before God whether we like it or not. David’s plea to be searched and known by God was not for God’s information but for his own. One of the key ways we learn to grow as believers is to first acknowledge that God has the right and the power to know us and to expose us for who and what we are, then to actively request it so God can have a free hand in building in us His character.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
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Phil, how true that we can't hide from God. And that realization seems to add to the awe that He loves us...still. Thanks for these good words!
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