GOD’S SPIRITUAL EKG
Our self-awareness is limited. And we rarely hold a mirror up to our own attitudes and actions. We tend to judge others harshly, but we always have an excuse for our own shortcomings and sins. In our hypocrisy, we often declare ourselves righteous in our own eyes.
Yet the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. As God told the prophet Samuel, “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). He “examines” the human heart, which is the source of our attitudes and actions.
And what does the Lord report from His heart examination? According to the prophet Jeremiah, God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
When we are honest with ourselves, feeling the conviction of the Spirit, we recognize our need for a new heart. So we cry out with David saying to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). When we sincerely confess our sins and bring them to the cross of Christ, trusting Him to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, then we receive the promise of God given through the prophet Ezekiel. For God has promised, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ez.36:26).
Isn’t that the secret of living the Christian life? Not only that we are forgiven, but that we have been given a new heart and a new life. That the Spirit of Christ lives in us!
PRAYER: Father, thank You for keeping Your promise in Christ Jesus. For through Him we have received a new heart. Today, examine our hearts afresh, so that we see ourselves as You do. Strengthen us by Your Spirit to live for You today. In Jesus’ name, amen.