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Psalm 139:1-4

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”

Almost everyone has heard or said the popular phrase, “…well, God knows my heart…” It’s usually in response to someone pointing out something we said or did, or failed to say or do.

What we are really saying is, “…well, I had good intentions, and God should be pleased with that.”

But we should really ask ourselves the hard and more revealing question: “Do I really want God to know what’s in my heart.”

Your “heart” is your:

thought, emotion, will, conscience, and spiritual perception

In short, the “real” you, that no one sees, that is expressed in your words, attitudes and actions.

And as you think about your inner thoughts, feelings and attitudes this week, do you really want them blasted all over “Heaven’s social media account”, before a holy God?

• Did you do a “good deed” that on the surface was for someone else’ benefit, but really you were seeking praise from others? (Pride)
• Did you tell a “white lie” that no one knows about to save yourself some embarrassment? (A lying tongue)
• Did you let someone else take the blame for something that was your responsibility? (The shedding of innocent blood)
• Did you manipulate people and situations “quietly” with deception to get a desired outcome? (Devising wicked schemes)
• Do you always like to go where the action is and live on the “danger side of life”? (Feet that make haste to run to evil)
• Did you make up a story that got someone else in trouble or caused them harm? (A false witness who breathes out lies)
• Do you “quietly” like to cause conflict among people where there would normally be harmony? (One who sows discord among brothers)

These examples are found in the list on things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19), and they are all heart issues.

Jeremiah 17:9 reveals the true condition of our hearts before a holy God:

“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable — who can understand it? ”

You can easily “put up a front” before people and hide your heart, but with God, there is no hiding. Psalm 139‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ says:

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night’  — even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.”

Since you can’t hide from the Lord, you might as well voluntarily “come clean” before He reveals the true condition of your heart to you and others — with consequences.

2 Samuel 11 is the story of David and Bathsheba. It details all the things David did once his “heart” was filled with lust for another man’s wife. Psalm 51 was written after the prophet Nathan confronted King David with his many sins. Like David, but before the consequences of our sin hits us like a ton of bricks, we should ask the Lord to “blot out our transgressions”, “create a clean heart”, and “renew a right spirit” within us (Psalm 51:1, 10).

The purpose of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus was to reconcile sinful man to a holy God. Take advantage of this gracious opportunity to be in fellowship with God the Father through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit renewing your “inner man” — the real you — your heart.

Clean your heart before a holy God — like David. Fall in love with God’s Word — like David (Psalm 119), and make a decision to pursue being a man or woman after God’s own heart — like David (Acts 13:22).