The Beauty of the Ashes: Search Me O God
Search Me O God
O God, you know my foolishness, and my faults are not hidden from you.
Psalm 69:6
There are many wise sayings attributed to Abraham Lincoln. One of the most common is this:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
That’s true, but there’s one person you can’t fool, any of the time – Jesus Christ. By the very definition of being God, knows everything we’ve ever done, said or thought. Yet sometimes we act as if we can fool Jesus by not admitting our sinfulness to him. How foolish we are.
God knew everything we would ever do, say or think before the world was created, so why do we act like we can hide anything from Him? When we realize that Jesus Christ, our Creator God, loves us in spite of all our foolishness and sins, we can finally become who He created us to be.
Real joy comes from being who God made us to be. Yes, even with all our faults and failures. The Father doesn’t want us to pretend we’re perfect. He doesn’t want us to try and please Him in our own power, trying to be someone we can’t be on our own. He wants us to give Him all of ourselves; all our sins, all our foolishness, all our hurts, hang ups and bad habits, and then let Him remake us into the beauty of His image; the image He bestowed within humanity in creation. When we realize this, confession becomes something, we long for, not something from which we run and hide.
‘Real joy comes from being who God made us to be.’
One of the reasons I love the season of Lent is that it offers us time to concentrate on becoming who we were made to be. Through increased times of prayer and fasting we place ourselves under the light of God’s loving microscope. We ask him to search our hearts as it says in the Psalms…
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139:23-24
On this second Friday of Lent, why not spend some time in confession. Ask the Lord to search you out, to show you all your foolish ways. Stop trying to fool the One who knows you better than you know yourself. Prayerfully read and meditate on Psalms 139 and 51. Allow the Holy Spirit to check your spirit, to lead you in confessing everything He shows you. Ask Him to burn away all the sin and shame He reveals to you, then watch as He brings beauty out of your ashes.
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
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