How much do you trust the Lord, how far are you willing to go, or should I say, how far are you willing for Him to take you. You have a choice you know, where He leads you do not have to follow, in fact, I am not sure that many of us really do, it’s that free will thing that keeps getting in the way, or as my lovely wife says, “We seem to get in our own way.” Let’s try this one on for size, shall we, see if it fits the distance you are willing to go.
“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) Now, we all know that the Lord can see and understand fully who we are, He knew about us before the foundation of the world, and He can tell you exactly what you are going to be doing a thousand years from now, but these verses are different, they are from a man led by the Holy Spirit of God to pen a decision, the decision to not wait and see, but to ask. “Search me” is not a term that most of us would ask of the Almighty, for one simple fact, what He finds He is going to inform you about, and more than likely it will be items about yourself that you don’t want to address, and mostly for one reason, they are items that are detestable to you, but that you enjoy, at least in the moment, ones you also want gone.
These are the things that tear us apart, sinful, selfish pleasures, and even though they may rarely if ever be acted upon in the flesh, they are nevertheless a dark recess of your mind that should not be there, they are in the recesses of your heart, the part of us that is more than a little untrustworthy. (Jer. 17:9) If you are going to ask the Lord to “try me, and know my thoughts,” you had best be aware of the one thing for sure, you will not be able to hide one of those thoughts from Him, and He will most definitely let you know the ones that He will be pointing out to you.
It makes little difference in the way that we approach these verses in this area, remember God already knows, what the writer of the Psalm, David, is saying is show me where I still am holding a part of me from you, show me what I need to do to become more pleasing, more obedient in your eyes. So my friends, how much do you trust Him, how much do you love Him, how far are you willing to go, because once you say these words, whether you repeat them verbatim or express them on your own, you will be shown, and then the question will be, what are you going to do about it.
Jesus said that if we ask anything in His name, that it would be given to us, and I believe I can say assuredly that this is one on those items that we can pray for and we will receive an answer. But how does the old secular saying go? “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Prayers are not wishes of course, but the analogy fits, do not pray this unless you are willing to give up that which He will show you, you must give deep consideration to what you are praying for, that “if there be any wicked way in me.” More than likely your mind just went to at least one, and perhaps several aspects of your life that would fit quite well here, and although you are perhaps no longer committing them on a daily basis, they enter into your life often enough that you know they should be removed, that you should address them. But do you really want to, I mean, after all, they are still enticing at times, their pull is almost irresistible, the anticipated pleasure is only held in check by the knowledge of the regrets that will ensue once the wickedness is completed.
How many times has this happened, how many times have you found yourself voicing repentance, how many times have you returned to the Lord, only to turn away again after the pull becomes a mighty grip, refusing to release you, until the deed is done, and the circle continues. That is the way it will continue until you realize the final words of the Psalm, until you understand that the reason you want these items gone from your life is so that you can be led “in the way everlasting.”
This ‘way’ is the same word that the first century Christians followed, it is what they called the Christian walk of their day, the Way. A complete, total and everlasting commitment to the will and Word of the Lord, that is what must be in the forefront of your mind if you decide to follow this path, and you must remember, He already knows, what you are doing is asking Him to show you so that you can do something about it, so that you can then bring them right back to Him and beg for help to accomplish His will in your life, to be led in the way everlasting.
Do you trust Him enough to ask Him to show you the deepest parts of your heart and thoughts, are you willing to face these things, and to finally do something about them, because that is part of the bargain, when God shows you, you have no more excuses, and you finally do what He tells you needs to be done so that these things are forever gone. It’s a big step, and like every step that we take for Him, it must be prayerfully thought out, the wicked ways that we love are the hardest ones to get rid of.
