The indifference that is offensive.

I find myself becoming inconvenienced when the Lord asks me to lay open my heart before Him.  It concerns me that I find it easy to become indignant about the sin in others’ lives, and I find it even easier to be indifferent about the sin in my own life.  I pray God prompts you to consider the condition of your heart.

Even when our wrongdoing may seem relatively clean, our hearts are not.  And our Lord cares about our hearts. 

I am comfortable with letting God search my heart when I manifest my sins in a blatant way.  I fail to acknowledge the unconcealed, less disgraceful sins that equally pollute my heart. 

But, all sin is ugly because it affects our hearts.  And I sin without even knowing it.   Whether I acknowledge my wrongs or even know about them, my heart is affected. 

By being indifferent, I am being offensive.  

May we present ourselves to Christ, so that He may find any unholy way in us.  When we open our hearts to Christ, He extracts the deepest deposits that may house decay.  Christ explores the creases  of our hearts we may not even know about—depths so repugnant we choose not to know about them.  We lack the power without Christ to address these knotty layers of our hearts.  

And through this process, we recognize our sin.  And through the recognition of our sin, we recognize our need for Christ’s atonement.  Even more, we experience Christ’s powerful purification of our hearts. 

Then, even in times when God has not prompted us to confess our iniquity, laying bare our hearts before God in recognition of our sinfulness, in recognition of His holiness is a blessed activity.  And I believe you will be blessed by it.  And I believe our supplication for God to purify us—and God’s purification of us—continues to attune our hearts to be utterly dependent on God.

I pray we lay bare our hearts before God.  I pray we become indignant about the sin in our lives.  I pray we do not remain indifferent to the condition of our hearts.  Praise God that despite the corrosive folds of our hearts, God wants to search our hearts.  Praise God that He renews every unholy way within us.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  (Proverbs 4:23 NIV).

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.”  (Psalm 139:1 NIV).

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  (Psalm 139:23, 24 NIV).

“Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”  (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV).  

Cue Marvin Gaye because this is where the magic happens.

Much love to you, 

Paige