Day 273
Psalm 26:2
"Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart."
With the words he wrote in Psalm 26:2, David was opening himself up completely to God's examination. Those words were powerful. It is not an easy thing to expose our hearts and minds to God in such an unlimited way as this.
Those of us who have grown in Christ over the years may understand that we do not automatically open up to God in such a complete way unless we have humbled ourselves before Him continually and allowed Him to have more and more of us. When we first received Christ as our Savior and Lord, we acknowledged our helplessness and surrendered our lives unconditionally to Him. We realized there was no way we could save ourselves or help in saving ourselves. We had to simply accept the sacrifice Jesus made for us. All we could do was give up and tum our lives over to Him, and He transformed our spirits. We were born again. Once that initial surrender took place, God began the work of conforming us into the image of Christ. There is a part we play in this process, however. After the transformation of our spirits, we must, as Paul said in Romans 12:1-2, present our bodies as living sacrifices and renew our minds. When we were saved, we got all of God. After we were saved, we began the process of giving Him all of us.
Opening ourselves up for God to examine us is not for the purpose of showing ourselves to Him, but rather for allowing Him to show us ourselves. Because such a revelation will not always be positive, we can unconsciously close off areas we do not want to deal with. In essence, we can be saying, "God, you may look in this room and that room, but please do not open that closet door." God will only expose to us what we ask Him to expose. We can therefore only excel in the areas we choose to allow him entrance into. The only time He will surprise us by exposing areas we are not aware of is when we ask to go higher, or when we yield ourselves for a stronger anointing. Then He has to show us the things that hinder us from receiving what we long for. It is then up to us to shut the closet He opens, or bow in acknowledgement of His will and surrender.
Because God's examination is thorough, and the results may prove painful or humiliating, we must worship and love Him to have the courage to say what David said. There is no point in asking for a thorough examination if we do not plan to respond with an acceptance of the repair work that may be necessary. We have to love God enough to say, "Regardless of how much I have to humble myself or discipline my mind and body, I am willing to have my total insides exposed before me, so I can cooperate with you in correcting whatever needs to be corrected."
I love the Lord and will have the courage to reveal my insides before him. I will not fear His examination, but humbly submit to his work in me to have me conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. He deserves my complete and total surrender.
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