“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24
How well do you know yourself?
How familiar are you with the sinful tendencies of your inmost thoughts and desires? The challenge in this area is that these selfish, internal impulses expertly conceal themselves from the person they influence. The people around us are most likely quite aware of our besetting sins but we can become quite adept at denying or downplaying them ourselves. Why is this?
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9
The heart in Scripture is not the emotional center so much as the volitional center – the seat of thought and decision-making; the center of our being. Unfortunately, the human heart is corrupted by the deceitfulness of sin – thoroughly conditioned to resist God and exalt itself. This is the natural starting point for all people apart from Jesus.
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21
Sinful hearts that are naturally foolish become darkened as they begin to reject God and worship other things instead. And as people turn away from God, He gives them over to the increasing power and presence of their sin.
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.” Romans 1:28-29
The foolish heart is darkened by idolatry (the worship of anything other than God). The darkened heart is corrupted by the increasing power of sin. The enslaved heart is then filled with all kinds of evil. It’s a tragic and terrible progression. Not all of us went very far down this road, but for all of us this is our backstory.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-4
“We all once lived in the passions of our flesh.” All of us.
Now, the good news is that at the moment of salvation we were transformed – carried by Jesus from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light; raised to life from our spiritual death; forgiven and cleansed from all of our sin; given a new heart with new desires; and filled with the Holy Spirit forever.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:5-7
But our initial justification and regeneration only begin the process of sanctification that will continue the rest of our lives, and that process involves a daily battle with the remaining sin in our flesh.
“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5
One of the central challenges for us, then, is discerning what is “earthly” or “of the flesh” in us and what is heavenly, of the Spirit. Often we assume that the default settings of our hearts and minds are spiritual when they are simply familiar.
The book of Jonah challenges us to look at our own hearts and listen to the God who continues to graciously pursue us.
And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah 4:4
Brian Sanders (11/6/22) helped us hear this question from the Lord and follow our anger (a secondary emotion) to its source, which is often the fear of losing control. That was certainly the issue for Jonah. He did not want to surrender his perspective, his emotions or his life to the will of God.
And often, if we’re honest, we are just like Jonah. So let’s gather this Sunday (11/13/22) asking the Lord to give us ears to hear His Word, eyes to see what is really inside us and hearts ready to respond in faith-filled surrender.