“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, NLT).
Observation
I love the fact that it was King David speaking here. King David was making the request for God to cleanse him. It wasn't God demanding that He be let in. It was David looking beyond the exterior to the interior.
Everything that people experience about us externally is, first of all, motivated internally. David was asking God to check his motivation, his purpose for doing, his desires. King David was asking for God to assess if he was in line with the way God would want him to function. He took it one step further by requesting that God do something about it and bring it to his attention, and then lead him back to a place of balance and alignment with God’s pathway and plan.
Maybe the acquisition of Christian knowledge is not necessarily a sure sign of Christian maturity. Maybe it’s the application of that knowledge that is a better sign of maturity. Knowing we should change because the Word says so but actually doing nothing to change shows immaturity.
But David made an incredible request of the Lord: “Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (v. 24). God's will is what David was requesting here: Make me more like You. What is it that the Bible says? I must decrease so He, Jesus, can increase in me (John 3:30).
Application
Pause today and wholeheartedly ask Jesus to show you anything that has started to get out of whack, out of balance. It can happen to the best of us. It did to King David. That’s why he made this request of God. If it was good enough for him, it’s probably good enough for us.
I think it’s sometimes the small stuff that leads us down roads we would rather not have traveled. I think constant course corrections, such as David was asking for here, have the potential to help us avoid disasters.
Ask a close friend for some insight about where you are in your journey in reference to acting, functioning and sounding like Jesus. Keep a short account with Jesus on a daily basis. It’s way easier to course correct if you do.
David was asking for a course correction from Dad. It’s a great habit for us all to practice. Why? Because it will help you and me avoid some crazy stuff.
Prayer
Dear Dad,
Please don’t leave me to my own ways.
I need Your daily guidance.
Your Word says that I don’t have because I don’t ask (Jas. 4:2).
Well, Dad, I am asking today.
Please mold and make me into what You have planned for me to be.
Please let it start with who I am on the inside because, when it’s all said and done, that is who I really am.
Your ever-growing son,
Robert.
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