The True Judge

Psalm 139:23-24 MSG:
Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.

If there's anything that has defied explanation, it is human behaviour and interaction. Man has perfected the art of deceit, deception and devious behaviour, able to say one thing while meaning the very opposite, and preaching one practice while actually doing the very opposite. We have mastered the art of talking from both sides of the mouth, holding other people to standards that we cannot attain and beating down people we perceive as weak, forgetting that the habits we so easily see and criticise in others is a reflection of our own personal lives. Man was made to be like God, but he chose the lower version of the knowledge of good and evil, seeking to chart the course of his life outside of God. Is it a suprise then that man is what and where he is now- clueless, visionless, powerless, directionless and purposeless.
It is in this light that today's passage becomes important. You can never know the truth about yourself until you hold yourself up to the Truth himself.  As long as man is the standard, the measuring gauge or the determinant of what is important to us, we can never truly achieve our potential in God. No wonder the Psalmist asked God to do the searching of his heart. Man has become so sophisticated that we can deliberately do wrong and find somewhere in our seared consciences to justify the wrong. We can keep telling ourselves lies over and over again until it looks like the truth. But as long as we hold ourselves up to the truth of God's Word, we see ourselves as we really are, and we can ask God for His help. When we have reached a point in our Christian experience where it seems as if we can now make it on our own, we are headed for disaster and disappointment.
Like the Psalmist, we must seek God out and lay our hearts bare before him. Our hearts can lead us astray if it is not under the control and influence of its Creator. Let God do his perfect work in our hearts so that we can fully maximise his Spirit in us. Let him have his way, because his way is always the best for us.
Let me end here by asking: can you stand before men and declare the truth in the face of death? Can your heart be fully rested in God no matter what goes on around you? Get your stand in God right; his time of favour is here