Hey Church!
I look forward to Sunday and our “Come Together” building fund offering. I am believing God for great things as we continue to share our resources to support God’s work at 185 Connection Point (aka-Teays Valley Acres!).
Allow me to remind you of some of this past Sunday’s key points:
Psalm 139:23-24 is a dangerous prayer. For those who want to be serious instead of surface in their relationship with God, I invite you to pray it with me for the next thirty days. Here it is:
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.
When David prayed his prayer in Psalm 139, he wasn’t simply asking God to give him success and to bless him. He was asking God to inspect him and to reveal any potential danger that lurked below the surface. David essentially said, “Let’s get to the bottom of who I am. Let’s get to the bottom of what needs to change. Let’s get to the bottom of your desires for my life, God.”
Here are three things David asked of God when he prayed this “below the surface” prayer.
- Expose my heart. (Vs 23-Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.)
Our hearts can’t be trusted because they can deceive us. So many people get focused on the behavior of a Christian, and behavior is important. But behavior is a natural expression of the heart of a believer. If we spend more time below the surface, if we spend more time dealing with the heart and addressing the heart and aligning the heart to the heart of God, our behavior will take care of itself. - Expel sin from my life. (vs 24a-See if there is any offensive way in me.)
Sin is deceitful, and sin will deceive us in order to destroy us. If you want to find yourself on a crash course to destruction just ignore sin in your life. Satan wants you to be in the dark about sin and the dangers of sin. We need to ask God to expel sin from our lives. We are told in Colossians 3:5-8 to be intentional about killing sin, curtailing sin, eradicating sin from our lives. Why? We either kill sin and put it to death or it will kill us.
The only way to live free of sin is to walk away from it, to remove yourself from a sinful path and to walk on the path of righteousness. Just like the addict who gains freedom from addiction, but goes back to the same old friends, the same old hangouts—he or she is bound to be bound by the same old hang-ups before long. We can’t live sin free and stay on the path that leads to sin. We have to get on a new path. That is why David prayed the last part of his prayer:
- Establish my course. (vs 24b-Lead me in the way everlasting.)
There is an evil way and an everlasting way. There is a broad way and a narrow way. There is a way of life and a way of death. There is an everlasting way and it is quite different from the path that feels good in the moment and is different from the path that unbelievers are on.
Instead of praying, “God, bless my efforts,” we may need to pray, “God, direct my efforts.” Instead of praying “God bless my business,” we need to pray, “God, direct my business.” Instead of praying, “God, bless my marriage,” we may need to pray, “God, direct my marriage.” Perhaps instead of asking God to bless our children, we need to pray for God to direct our children on the path He has established for them. We don’t determine the way we should go and then ask God to bless it, right? You see, God can’t and won’t bless our self-effort, effort that is being made apart from His leading and direction in our lives, but He can bless us when we allow Him to direct our steps.
“God, help me,” “God, bless me,” are surface level prayers. Are you surface or serious about your relationship with God? A life submitted to God is a life accountable to God. Today, God is calling us to surrender our hearts, surrender our sins, and surrender our wills and ways to God’s way. To refuse to pray this below the surface prayer is to refuse to grow, to refuse to change, to refuse to acknowledge that God wants to do more than a surface work in our lives. Will you pray below the surface with me?
