Search Me, O God...

(To any who read this, know that I am exhorted myself to greater attention in this writing.)

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting."  Psalm 139:23-24 (NKJ)

Our own spiritual introspection along with King David's earnest request of The Lord, taken as our own, might prove fruitful in our own busy lives at times - not because we intend any evil or offense, but because the fog of this weary life may hide things from our consciousness. For example, without even realizing it, it's entirely possible that our arrogance before the Lord is far greater than we imagine... 

"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."  James 4:13-16 (NKJ)

Even those things that are so commonplace to our lives are worth exploring to determine what they're saying of us to the Lord God Almighty while remembering the potential of our offenses before Him who makes provision of all things to our sustenance and eternal profit - even one more breath to continue on.

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?"  Psalm 8:3-4 (NKJ)

It's so easy to take a huge number of things in life for granted every day - day after day, without thinking about how our doing so might represent us to the Lord. It's good for us to go through our lives confident in the Lord's presence and influence over our path, but is our busy confidence trailed by a lack of gratitude for those seemingly commonplace things that the Lord oversees, provides, and intervenes in in our lives? 

Our relationship with God through Christ isn't part time, but ongoing from the moment that we truly accepted Christ until the point that eternity ends. So every moment our words, thoughts, deeds and attitudes are being observed by the One who loves us most, but who also holds such commanding power and overwhelming majesty over all that exists - the One that we profess to be our greatest love. Do we ever dare to think of Him simply as part of the commonplace of our lives or consider Him only when our consideration of Him is convenient to us?... 

...Would this not also be arrogance on our part?

Job 38 is a chapter in scripture that I sometimes go to in order to refresh my focus and re-secure my life's priorities in proper order when the busyness of life attempts to encroach on the holy and most sacred of life's true priorities. 

Only a snippet here, but the whole chapter is worthwhile reading and rereading to bring to bear the true realty of who our God is and what place He deserves continually in our thoughts and in our lives. ...

"Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?..." Job 38:3-7 (NKJ)

To remind ourselves of our proper place before Him continually, as well as His place in priority in and over our lives, is so important to our proper relationship with our God. With all that life (by design of our enemy) throws at us these days, we need the continual reminders that we find in scripture to keep things in proper perspective of the true reality - the one that will still exist when this one passes away and we stand before HIM.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NKJ)

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it."  Deuteronomy 10:12-14 (NKJ)