\u201cGod, examine me and know my heart;\u00a0test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0 See if there is any bad thing in me.\u00a0 Lead me on the road to everlasting life.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 139: 23-24<\/p>\n
In Psalm 139, King David offers an apt description of how God can work in our lives \u2013 if only we will let Him. God knows our hearts.\u00a0 He knows both our good qualities and our bad ones.\u00a0 He knows where we need to change.<\/p>\n
God wants us to become the best version of ourselves. In fact, I\u2019m always amazed at how persistent God is when it comes to changing me for the better.\u00a0 For instance, I have a problem with being impatient.\u00a0 I get irritated about certain things.\u00a0 For example, it drives me up a wall when folks use the television as background noise (as opposed to playing classical music, or something equally pleasant).\u00a0 I get annoyed if people don\u2019t make their beds.\u00a0 I hate it when strangers stand too close to me.\u00a0 And it bugs me to no end when people fail to say, \u201cThank you.\u201d\u00a0 My list of irritations goes on and on.<\/p>\n
When these kinds of issues arise repeatedly, I initially am surprised. But then I take a step back and realize that God is testing me. Again<\/em>.\u00a0 God could easily eliminate these issues, but that wouldn\u2019t solve my problem with being irritable.<\/p>\n God wants to refine our characters. He wants us to become spiritually and emotionally mature.\u00a0 He wants us to be kinder, gentler, and more decent people.\u00a0 So throughout our lives, He will keep testing us in the areas where we need the most work.<\/p>\n God not only knows the ways in which we need to improve, He knows when we are trying our best to improve. He sees us do the right thing when no one is looking.\u00a0 He knows when we are overwhelmed and want to lash out at everyone, but instead we go to the bathroom and have a good cry.\u00a0 He knows when I bite my tongue when I am irritated, instead of snapping at people.\u00a0 God sees it all.<\/p>\n Until the day we die, we are all God\u2019s works in progress. He doesn\u2019t expect us to be perfect.\u00a0 He only expects us to try.\u00a0 And the hope is that along the way, with His help, we will keep improving.\u00a0 The character flaws that plagued us in the past hopefully will be corrected at some point.\u00a0 And then we can move on and tackle new areas.<\/p>\n This week, consider David\u2019s plea in Psalm 139. Like King David, we should be asking God to work with us until we eliminate those bad things in our characters that prevent us from being our best.\u00a0 Think about the areas in your character that need to change and ask God to help you.\u00a0 The growing process may be uncomfortable, but the benefits of a better character will be worth the trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cGod, examine me and know my heart;\u00a0test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0 See if there is any bad thing in me.\u00a0 Lead me on the road to everlasting life.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 139: 23-24 In Psalm 139, King David offers an apt description of how God can work in our lives \u2013 if only we will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n