And Lead Me in the Way Everlasting
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
As a rule, I'm not moved by the Psalms. Call it a season of my life where the Psalms aren't my thing, or whatever, but they just usually are a nice poem for me and nothing more.
But this. This psalm, or chunk of one at least, is incredible to me. It stops me in my tracks just because and it moves me.
Search me. Test me. See me. Lead me.
First of all, we know God doesn't need to search anything--He knows my thoughts before I think them. Second, I can't really tell God to do anything. He's kind of the boss of the whole world and what I have to say is pretty mute in comparison. I think that's why I'm so compelled by this scripture. All four statements are pleas. The writer of this psalm is asking God to know his heart, to know his thoughts, to find every fault in him and then show him the way.
The important part here is "and then." God knows that we get anxious. We talked about this last week in youth group when discussing Philippians 4:6-7. "Paul tells us not to be anxious about anything. But." In both of these scriptures we see that God gets it. We are human and we are going to worry and obsess and over think and be fearful because it's in our nature. AND THEN.
This 'and then' part of the psalm is teaching us that we need God to helps us will those anxious thoughts and fears SO THAT he can work in us and help us to have a heart and mind that focuses on The Kingdom, helps us to know what is a kingdom problem and what isn't.
He knows we are going to have feelings and emotions and they aren't all great. But he made us that way. These emotions we feel are part of our freedom. They are something we can choose in a sense. We don't choose how we feel, but we choose how we react to that feeling. If God wanted to put on a puppet show he would have, but instead, he is writing this beautiful story full of characters with minds and hearts of their own. We get emotions, and we get to choose how to handle them. This psalmist does something really cool with that freedom and says to God, "God, I want you to know how what's in my heart and I want you to know every anxiety in me and I want you to find everything that doesn't point to you in me and then I want you to make me a true follower that looks to you and your kingdom instead of all of this earthly garbage."
In other words, he is taking that freedom and asking God to help him choose how to react to emotions in a way that lines up with God.
Awesome.
This week we are going to dig into this scripture and talk through it. But I'm curious, what do you think? What is the Holy Spirit revealing to you in these verses?
Think about it,
Jada
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
As a rule, I'm not moved by the Psalms. Call it a season of my life where the Psalms aren't my thing, or whatever, but they just usually are a nice poem for me and nothing more.
But this. This psalm, or chunk of one at least, is incredible to me. It stops me in my tracks just because and it moves me.
Search me. Test me. See me. Lead me.
First of all, we know God doesn't need to search anything--He knows my thoughts before I think them. Second, I can't really tell God to do anything. He's kind of the boss of the whole world and what I have to say is pretty mute in comparison. I think that's why I'm so compelled by this scripture. All four statements are pleas. The writer of this psalm is asking God to know his heart, to know his thoughts, to find every fault in him and then show him the way.
The important part here is "and then." God knows that we get anxious. We talked about this last week in youth group when discussing Philippians 4:6-7. "Paul tells us not to be anxious about anything. But." In both of these scriptures we see that God gets it. We are human and we are going to worry and obsess and over think and be fearful because it's in our nature. AND THEN.
This 'and then' part of the psalm is teaching us that we need God to helps us will those anxious thoughts and fears SO THAT he can work in us and help us to have a heart and mind that focuses on The Kingdom, helps us to know what is a kingdom problem and what isn't.
He knows we are going to have feelings and emotions and they aren't all great. But he made us that way. These emotions we feel are part of our freedom. They are something we can choose in a sense. We don't choose how we feel, but we choose how we react to that feeling. If God wanted to put on a puppet show he would have, but instead, he is writing this beautiful story full of characters with minds and hearts of their own. We get emotions, and we get to choose how to handle them. This psalmist does something really cool with that freedom and says to God, "God, I want you to know how what's in my heart and I want you to know every anxiety in me and I want you to find everything that doesn't point to you in me and then I want you to make me a true follower that looks to you and your kingdom instead of all of this earthly garbage."
In other words, he is taking that freedom and asking God to help him choose how to react to emotions in a way that lines up with God.
Awesome.
This week we are going to dig into this scripture and talk through it. But I'm curious, what do you think? What is the Holy Spirit revealing to you in these verses?
Think about it,
Jada
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