It’s bad enough when someone stops by for a visit and the house is a mess.
We all know the discomfort of making excuses at such a time.
But what about when someone who REALLY knows us decides to confront us about why we’re not acting ourselves?
Do we enjoy acknowledging that we’re suffering in some hidden way because of a financial loss or emotional wounding or workplace hassles or moral/spiritual failure?
Of course not.
Doing so involves admitting that we don’t have everything under control.
We have no choice but to admit weakness and imperfection.
That’s never fun.
That’s also the first step toward strengthening and renewed purpose, however.
And when someone knows the whole story about what’s happening with us and still wants to love us and help us, that is a beautiful and encouraging realization.
Listen, in the midst of the many who could care less about our well-being, there are some people who do want to help us.
Most important among them is the Lord Himself.
He knows the “houses” of our lives are sometimes messy, yet He stops by anyway because He knows we need to be reminded of His love and offered His power to help clean up the mess.
I’m prompted to write of this topic today because of a passage included in today’s One-Year Bible reading.
“The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being.” (Proverbs 20:27)
God constantly searches (notice the present tense of the verb) every corner of our hearts. He’s not doing this just so He can find a reason to zap us to hell.
If that were His objective, we’d all have been fried long ago.
Instead, He’s looking at how we’ve received Him, His Son Jesus, His Holy Spirit, His Word of scripture, His people the Church and His purposes for our lives.
You and I have work to do in getting our life house in order so that God increasingly likes what He sees.
Let’s look at our habits and attitudes according to God’s standards. We WILL make changes as a result and God will smile more when He searches us.
As always, I love you
Martin
