Serious Business

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  Psalm 139:23-24

Last spring, before Easter, the day set aside to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, my church put together a devotional booklet for Lent.  The contributors were anyone in the church who desired to participate by submitting a short piece based on a scripture regarding Jesus’ ministry on earth, the crucifixion or the resurrection.  I was privileged to write three of them.  One of the ones that I wrote was based on Matthew 7:21-23, a passage which I consider the most terrifying in all of the Bible.  In it, Jesus was speaking in His Sermon on the Mount, saying that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of His Father.  He went on to say that lots of folks will claim all sorts of good works that they did, but He will proclaim that He never knew them and order them to depart from Him, calling them workers of iniquity.  These folks who are going to be rejected are those who thought that they could get by on their good deeds.  However, scripture is clear that one can only see the kingdom of heaven through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, God’s foremost will for His people.

As of this date, I am doing a study in the book of Lamentations which was written by the prophet Jeremiah as an epilogue to the book of Jeremiah in which he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and the army of Babylon.  Many Judeans were killed, and many others taken captive to Babylon for 70 years because of their egregious sins against their Creator and Benefactor, the LORD God.  He had punished them many times before for their idolatry, but this time God had to allow a very harsh punishment in order to bring them to repentance and a return to Him.  Jeremiah, obeying God in warning the people, was heartbroken because the people would not heed God’s message and warning to them.  Babylon came, destroyed Jerusalem, killed or captured God’s people.  Jeremiah compiled his grief in word as he wrote the book of Lamentations.  He understood why they had to be punished so severely and wanted them to see that they had brought this on themselves by their rebellion against God.  He said, “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD (Lamentations 3:40).

That verse made me think of a verse in scripture which calls for folks to ask God to search their hearts.  While Matthew 7:21-23 could be classified as the most terrifying passage in scripture, there is another one which probably ranks a close second, Psalm 139:23-24.  King David wrote and requested that God search him and know his heart; try him and know his thoughts in order to see if there was any wicked way in him and then to lead him in the way everlasting.  It takes real courage and honesty to let God’s light shine upon and through a man or woman in order to highlight any hidden sin or any evasiveness to anything that God has asked him or her to do.  We are afraid to open ourselves up to God’s magnifying glass because we might not like what is discovered.  We usually just go merrily along our way, trying to live righteously, doing good deeds, giving of our time, talents, and treasures, but keeping back a little bit for ourselves.  We tend to compartmentalize our lives into various segments as if our spiritual lives are separate from our physical lives, but there is no separating the two.  Are we afraid that God will find out something about us that He didn’t know?  He already knows everything about us, and there may be something of which we are unaware that an examination could call our attention to and allow us to make a change.  On the other hand, God doesn’t need our permission to search our hearts, but I think that He is pleased when we ask.  David understood that to be his best for God, he had to lay everything on the line.

God does give us opportunities to search ourselves.  That reminds me of a defendant in a trial.  If he or she is truly guilty, then it is better all the way around to just admit guilt than go through the lengthy process of a trial and then be found guilty.  God gives us the opportunity to examine ourselves and admit our guilt rather than Him having to point it out.  In I Corinthians 11:27-32, Paul cautioned believers to examine themselves before they take of the bread and wine in communion.  That’s a good thing, because he went on to say that to eat and drink unworthily, that is, with unconfessed sin in one’s life, is to bring condemnation upon oneself, possibly ending in illness or death.  That is serious business.  Paul also wrote in II Corinthians 13:5 for us to examine ourselves that we have truly been born again, that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.  Otherwise, we could end up like the folks in Matthew 7:21-23.  I am grateful that God gives us the Holy Spirit when we are saved to help us stay on the straight and narrow.  We just have to let Him do His work in leading us in self-examination so that we won’t be ashamed.  It’s good to know that God loves us that much.