Would You Ask This?

Would You Ask This?

by David Brenneman 

Psalm 139:23...Would you be so bold as to ask Jesus to do this?   Didn't Jesus also say this of Himself that it is He who searches the hearts?  Jeremiah 17:10.

What do you think about that you think nobody knows about but you?

What do you worry about that you think you're the only one who knows about it?

What secret thoughts do you keep from speaking that you have never spoken or written?

In what ways have you deceived yourself in this?  Because we all have to some point.  We dismiss this thought or that gesture.  Yet none has escaped notice by God.  Nothing we have ever pondered, nothing that we have ever desired.  Even when we are lying to ourselves that too is known. 

Why would you ask such a question as this: search me God?  Because whether or not you truly believe it with all of your heart, you need His truth to survive. 

"Search me, O God, and know my heart today;

Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.

See if there be some wicked way in me;

Cleanse me from ev'ry sin and set me free.

I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;

Fulfill thy Word, and make me pure within.

Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame;

Grant my desire to magnify thy name.

Lord, take my life and make it wholly thine;

Fill my poor heart with thy great love divine.

Take all my will, my passion, self, and pride; I now surrender; Lord, in me abide." 

- "Search Me Oh God" J Edwin Orr 1936

Would you find Philippians 4:8 cultivating in your heart and mind?  Are your thoughts polluted?  Are they a culmination of trying to balance the world's way of thinking and what the Bible teaches you?  Are your thoughts striving to be Holy as God is Holy?  

Would you indeed be honest with you?

Because should you truly find yourself face-to-face with Jesus today...indeed you will be.  

You may deceive yourself but you cannot deceive the Spirit.  If indeed you are saved in Christ Jesus that same Holy Spirit indwelling you knows everything about you.  Including what you deny about yourself. 

Are the commands of Jesus important to you?  Or are they considered optional to you? Are they firm or do you think there's "wiggle room" in obeying them?

Are you more interested in living life your way than the way the Spirit needs you to live in Christ Jesus?  Being His workmanship means He decides what stays and what goes.  He decides what surgeries are needed in our way of thinking and living.  

"Come, every soul by sin oppressed, There's mercy with the Lord; And He will surely give you rest, By trusting in His word. 

Only trust Him, only trust Him,Only trust Him now; 

He will save you, He will save you,

He will save you now."

This excerpt from "Come, Every Soul" by John H Stockton 1874 gives us a very sweet reminder of priorities in the Christian life. 

When we put people and jobs and entertainment ahead of God's plan and purpose for us...we lose.  We lose out in a right relationship with Jesus. We lose out on true blessings vs what are perceived blessings which didn't come by God's hand but rather our own. 

Jesus said that if we love anyone or anything more than Him then we are not worthy of Him.  

Our life is supposed to be a living testimony of the love of God towards us.

What does your life show?  Nothing but work?  Nothing but television, movies etc?

Nothing but parties and travel?  Nothing but fiction consumption?  Nothing that at all has to do with what we read today?  Making money is more important than living for Jesus?  Making your status before men and women greater than them seeing Jesus in you?  Is self more prevalent in what others see in your life than Jesus?  Are you truly following Jesus or are you, like King David once said, lamenting what you USED to do with people in the house of God?  

If you have read this, this far, then maybe you are thinking about it.  Maybe you are realizing that the only person you are truly fooling is you.  Maybe it's time to stop running ahead of God.  To let go of your desires and embrace what it is you are alive in this here this now to be doing in the plan and purpose for humanity by God.  

My Dear Reader you are not born in this here and this now by accident.  In Christ Jesus you have a divinely appointed purpose.  There's a very specific purpose in the body of Christ that's only for you to be doing.  It's not about personal betterment.  It's not about your career, your job, your this or your that.  It's not about how great you can be physically or anything else.  

Would you dare to ask the Spirit to show you the truth about you?  Will you?

Will you indeed pursue that purpose and calling that's only yours to do in Christ Jesus?

We read that we are not our own we were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  With a price tag that high and valuable, are you wasting life on your desires and your wants?

Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 says to trust in the Lord with all your heart And lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight...all your heart...all your ways.  All.

You know a really good starter gauge in how much you are doing this "all" is your time in prayer...how much of those minutes you are awake do you spend in prayer with Jesus?  

Second gauge is how much time is in the Bible do you spend?

A third is where do your wandering thoughts go?  

We need to trust in the Lord with all our hearts because we cannot trust ourselves.  Sin and our sin nature will deceive us.  We will seek our own welfare ahead of what it is we are placed in the body of Christ Jesus to be doing if left to our own devices.

Pray that prayer: Search me oh God.  Show me my heart today.  See if there be any wicked way in me.  Cleanse me from ev'ry sin and set me free.