Read: Psalm 139
Have you ever tried to give yourself a massage? If you haven’t, try it sometime. It will likely be the most frustrating and unsatisfying massage you’ve ever had in your life – if you can even call it that. No matter how much you want to rub away those tense pressure points built up by stress, you can’t really do it by yourself. You need help.
In our Christian journey, we can try to reform our character on our own – with the same unsatisfying result of massaging yourself. You can go through the motions of being a Christian, but nothing is really changing. At our core, everything is as it has been – we have simply changed our behavior.
Richard Foster says, “The fruit of the Spirit is not push, drive, climb, grasp and trample … Life is more than a climb to the top of the heap.”
Life is far more than a climb to the top, particularly when it comes to God’s Kingdom. We need to encounter God’s transformative power, enabling us to be the people He has called us to be. But we can’t do that in our own strength. When it comes to true transformation, the kind that leaves you desiring to participate in God’s upside down Kingdom, the real work is done when we make space for God to change us. We must take the brave step of opening our hearts before the Lord and inviting Him to begin the refining process. It can be quite painful, yet necessary for true change.
The psalmist David wrote, “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” (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV).
It’s a dangerous proposition to ask God to search us. What might He find? What will He uncover? In short, those places of our heart that need to be cleansed or purged will be revealed. And that’s actually good news.
Sin’s weighty burden can be too much to bear if we refuse to part ways with it. Yet like glaring into a bright light after opening our eyes for the first time from a deep slumber, owning up to our sin can be difficult at first. However, eventually we realize it’s a healthier place to live than in the darkness.
Pray: Father, thank you for Your amazing love and power. Please help me to turn to you for help when I feel discouraged about my faith. Show me the way to live and help me to walk in the way everlasting.
