{"id":1455,"date":"2014-08-20T08:19:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2014-08-20T08:19:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:19:25","slug":"search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html","title":{"rendered":"Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Search me, Oh God and know my heart.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>Test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>See if there be any offensive way in me,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>And lead me in the way everlasting.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><em>~King David, Psalm 139<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Something was smelly in our fridge the past week, and try as I may, I couldn&#8217;t find it. Hiding on a shelf in the door was a rotten hard-boiled egg in a plastic bag. Keeping on top of rotting leftovers is\u00a0a job you just have to stay on top of. The same is true of our souls. Thoughts, feelings, actions, and words that aren&#8217;t blessed and don&#8217;t align with God&#8217;s love can fester and rot, and soon people around us can almost smell it. Taking out the trash we hold in our hearts can be a daily habit. We have a receptacle outside of ourselves: \u00a0it&#8217;s the cross. The cross is, as Mark calls it, &#8220;the toxic waste dump of the universe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s there I take my bad attitudes, my eyeball rolling, my critical tongue, my angry words, my inner whining child, my unforgiving inner brat, my silent cursing, and untamed imaginations. I acknowledge my sin, take it to Jesus, and leave it with Him. I depart\u00a0that God-forsaken place forgiven and cleansed. Jesus gives me His love to replace the sin I forsook. He keeps it real simple for us: \u00a0Love God\u00a0and Love Others. I&#8217;m reminded to replace my bad attitudes, critical spirit, anger, complaining, and unforgiveness with His unending love which manifests in real, sincere kindness. He can make me a kind person! I can change through the powerful force of His love.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>My Father,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>&#8220;Search me, Oh God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any offensive way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.&#8221; <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>[Quiet yourself before your loving God and see if He brings to mind a need for change. Then take a load of trash to the dump, acknowledging your sin and asking forgiveness. Replace that sin with a new habit: gratitude to God.] <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The way I&#8217;ve chosen isn&#8217;t everlasting; it feels like death. So I die to death today and live for life! I receive Your great love, forgiveness, joy, and all the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>In Jesus&#8217; Name, Amen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Search me, Oh God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0 See if there be any offensive way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. ~King David, Psalm 139 Something was smelly in our fridge the past week, and try as I may, I couldn&#8217;t find it. Hiding on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,585,584,208,583],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forgiveness","tag-habit","tag-psalm-139","tag-repentance-2","tag-toxic-waste-dump-of-the-universe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Search me, Oh God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0 See if there be any offensive way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. ~King David, Psalm 139 Something was smelly in our fridge the past week, and try as I may, I couldn&#8217;t find it. Hiding on&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-20T12:19:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily","og_description":"Search me, Oh God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0 See if there be any offensive way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. ~King David, Psalm 139 Something was smelly in our fridge the past week, and try as I may, I couldn&#8217;t find it. Hiding on&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2014-08-20T12:19:25+00:00","author":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html","name":"Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-20T12:19:25+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-20T12:19:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/08\/search-me-giving-your-heart-a-fresh-start-daily.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Search Me. Giving Your Heart a Fresh Start Daily"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf","name":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","caption":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw and their four children have been ministering in their local church since 1990. Jill is an accomplished worship leader and recording artist with several CDs in Target stores\u2019 \u201cLifescapes\u201d collection. Mark is the former pastor of the 7,000 member North Heights Lutheran Church. He holds a Ph.D. in leadership from Regent University, is the author of three books and a recognized conference speaker.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}