Good morning,
One
of the most challenging truths that God gives us to live with is that
the perfectly Holy God is also the perfect Loving Heavenly Father. Our
sin nature assures us that we have the right to decide what is right and
wrong and that anyone else is wrong who decides to tell us that we are
wrong when we know we are right. One of the life lessons that we learn
early in life is that there is always someone around us who gladly tells
us that there is something wrong with us that needs to be adjusted if
we are going to “do it right.” It doesn’t take long for most of us to
decide that “No one is going to tell me what I have to do.” For people
who develop a grudge against the God of the Bible, their attitude gets
stronger and stronger with age and gives them the right to do what they
want and enjoy, or at least try, to get away with the process. If we do
decide that the Bible is true, that we are sinners in need of a Savior,
that we need to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, and actually do that,
will that decision automatically change our attitude toward trusting and
obeying the God of the Bible?
No, it’s always a process.
Becoming a child of God changes the standing we have with our Savior,
but the process of changing how we think and what is really going on in
our hearts is a life long process. The Enemy does his best to keep our
focus on ourselves and keep our opinion of ourselves as flesh based as
possible. Alas, we are all easily fooled. One of the wonderful things
that David did in Psalm 139 was to give God permission to not only
search him, but to point out to him the things that were still a part of
his life that were offensive to his Heavenly Lover. Even though this
is one of the verses that I try to read every day, it was only last week
that the Lord opened this verse to a level that I had never seen
before. I do want God’s input on my heart and thoughts, but I hadn’t
given any serious thought as to how that was going to happen in my
life. Suddenly it occurred to me that the way God was answering my
prayers was by putting circumstances in my life that would cause my
heart and mind to leak. I would leak out something that showed where I
was not like Jesus and not under the control of the Holy Spirit. God
has taught me that he is never my accuser but always my lover. If he is
going to show me something he is doing, it is to set me free from
something that is not like him. He longs to lead me along the path of
everlasting life so that I will look more and more like Jesus and less
and less like Roy.
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God,
and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out
anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of
everlasting life.
Roy Wisner
