I have met liars that could have taken home awards for their artfulness. Ordinary people who have lived behind a veil of secrecy are closed off to all those who ‘don’t really know them.’ On the rare occasion where their true personality was forced into the light, it wasn’t a pretty picture. What they could not deny, they minimised. What they could not minimise, they raged against and insisted that it was no one’s business but their own. But I assure you, when the scrutiny ceased, the cracks were quickly plastered over, and the façade lifted back into place.
There is a lot that we can hide from each other, but we can hide nothing from God. Even the thoughts we are yet to think about are already known, and were known before we were born.
We take solace in the knowledge that God knows our true motives when others doubt us. It gives us strength to carry on in the Lord. However, we must accept that God tests those motives and be always ready to submit to His correction.
In every man’s mind there’s some private stuff that is “for my eyes only.” The thought of God conducting a thorough audit of his inner thoughts is not always a welcome one. But God must put all things to the test. If He is not allowed to expose a man’s inner thoughts, that man’s soul will rot from the inside out.
Since the Lord searches every heart – Humbly offer Him yours…
“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).
John Staiger