Pastor Lucy Paynter Daily Insights

“Matters of the Heart.” You know, the heart, the soul contains layers of thoughts, feelings, and intentions; some are known to us, and some are not really conscious of.

The depth and detail of one's character are so far-reaching that we sometimes don’t even understand our motivations, interests, purposes, and plans. Sometimes we don’t even understand our own decisions.

And this is why David, in Psalms 139:23-24, got to that point in life

where he realized that he didn’t know himself that well. So he figured out that he needed someone who knew him better than himself. One who could be trusted to search him. To know him at the deepest levels.

Let that sink, David knew that he could not afford to content himself with generalities. He knew the danger of giving himself over to the judgment of self-delusion. And so he gathered himself before the divine light of God that it may penetrate even to the deepest ends of his heart. He laid his heart bare, before God, with all its outward manifestations. He desired that the divine light may penetrate him and cleanse him of all that cleaved onto him that was evil.

And this is the prayer we see in verses 23 and 24: the prayer and the yearning of a devout heart that craves nothing short of purity.

A heart that wants to be separated from its former times and ushered into the way of endurance. The way of righteousness. The way everlasting way of God.

And this is the desire I seek to stir in us, to have in our lives as believers. A desire for righteousness at any cost. A desire so deep that even when we’re conscious of our fallen nature, we can still go before the Lord with a longing for His light and ask Him, “Search me, O Lord. To the deepest parts of my heart. Search even to my inmost self. I know you will find evil in there, but

such me still”. You know this is more than a desire. It’s a frank acknowledgment of the state of our hearts. It’s a confession. It is a bold acceptance of a terrible fact to the carnal mind. The fact that God knows us altogether. That He sees what lurks at the center of our being. Yes! He sees all that lurks within us. But He looks not with an eye of condemnation. Instead, he looks with a loving eye.

This is the secret that the psalmist knew. The conception of his relationship with God was evident, and this is why he was willing to turn himself inside out before Him. This is a demonstration of confident love. A love that knows it is surrendering to

the greatest of loves. This is the prayer of a heart that knows its sinfulness and is willing to submit it to the heart that bears it all away. This is a heart that’s willing to submit to the search process. Not so that the God who knows all may know something new. But that the man may know the condition of his own heart. Even what lies hidden from his conscious mind may be unveiled until he is no longer ignorant of it. This is a prayer for enlightenment even to the sins we may consider minute. It is a prayer for deliverance. Pray with me now.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

Amen. Shalom

Pastor Lucy Paynter with your Daily Insights Matters of the Heart Part 1.

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