Good morning,
Search me, O God
Does the creator of our universe have the right to be in control of what he has created? Does the Lord God who designed and gave life to all the life forms in his heaven and our earth have the right to form them into all sorts of sizes and shapes that will live in all sorts of settings without our permission and understanding? Could it be possible that the God and Savior who designed and created human beings in their own image did so as a act of loving kindness in order to fill up some of their eternal heaven with forever family and friends? And then, could this same loving God allow one of his most powerful angels to rebel and to allow his hate and lies to become a part of this world as a tester of the love that we human beings would give him in our life here on earth? That’s what the Bible tells us that this is exactly what God did. Our Enemy does his best to try to convince us that all that we see now is just a great big accident, and that we are responsible for what goes on in our lives and in our world. Our Enemy’s ideas of good and evil are hate filled lies. Our Enemy does his best to get us to do things his way and then mocks us and accuses us when what we do leads to emptiness and frustration.
God has never abandoned his love based creation. He has given us deep down guidelines about what he considers the way he wants us to serve him. He has also given us written guidelines in the Bible to guide us away from the sin filled rebellion that we are trained to believe. God tells us, For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will.(Rom.8:7) God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament said, "If you love me, obey my commandments.(Jo.14:15) Since this tension is always true for us, why do we so easily forget that what we do naturally will turn us away from God? I am fascinated by the approach that we have in our day that what we need to do as godly people is to give people the “Good News” of God’s salvation in the most culturally accepted way. Instead of looking up for God’s approval, we look around us to discover the most successful way to get others to follow God. We long for success when what God longs for us to do is to pray, Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.(Ps.139:23,24) We have become “followers of God” who long for the books and sermons that will help us to live lives that make us acceptable to the folks around us. We have forgotten to pray, Take control of what I say, O LORD, and guard my lips. Don't let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don't let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.(Ps.141:3,4) There is one other important thing that we never think of that we need to pray about. Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don't let me refuse it.(v.5) Our Enemy has convinced us that loving, prayer based correction is an attack instead of a needed kindness that will help us to live more like Jesus. Dear Lord, help us to keep listening and learning and loving you instead of following our own natural way of following you.
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Roy Wisner
