Daily Devotional

-March 7, 2021-

Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,

-Asking God To Search Us And Try Us-

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

(Psalm 139:23-24).

David’s short prayer at the end of Psalm 139, is both encouraging and challenging. It shows David’s desire to please and serve the Lord even more. He invited the omniscient God to evaluate him. He wasn’t interested in man’s evaluation, whether from his fellow men or his own evaluation.

There are four requests that David asks the Lord in our text: to search his heart, to try and know his anxieties, to see if there is any wicked way in him, and to lead him in the way everlasting. He wanted a closer walk with the Lord and to be more pleasing to Him.

• Search me, O God, and know my heart – David did not want a brief consideration but a full search. He wanted God to check out his heart. In the old days of full service gas stations, the attendant used to not only fill the gas, but would check the oil, the radiator, the tires, and wash the windshield. Now that was full service! We as believers need God to search our hearts and know them. We need His full service.

• Try me, and know my anxieties – Each of us have anxieties, things that cause us to worry. Anxiety weigh us down and interferes with our spiritual walk with the Lord. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” In other words, be anxious about nothing but pray about everything. The peace of God will guard our hearts.

• See if there is any wicked way in me – Jeremiah describes the heart in Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it. I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways; according to the fruit of his doings.” This is why when we get saved, God gives us a new heart. Ezekiel 18:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” David wanted the Lord to hold him accountable. God alone can see and know our thoughts, attitudes, desires, and motives. Though David was not prefect, he was a man after God’s own heart.”

• Lead me in the way everlasting – David knew his life on earth was short and what he did here would count for eternity. The same is true of us as believers; God wants us set our minds on the things above not on the things of earth.”

May the Lord help us to pray this prayer and mean it: search me and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties, see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in way everlasting. We can’t change and grow unless God shows and exposes our true heart to us.

Have a blessed day seeing ourselves as God sees us so we can be all He wants us to be. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean