Step Two: See the Truth of the Inner Person
November 13, 2024
Psalm 51:6b You will teach me wisdom in my innermost parts.
Proverbs 28:13 Whoever hides his transgressions will not succeed, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will find mercy.
Good can only come from divine grace, overcoming corrupt nature, so willingly give God permission to walk through you and expose anything "not of faith."
Psalm 139:23 Examine me, God, and know my mind, test me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any offensive tendency in me, and lead me in the eternal way.
As the Lord knows me thoroughly, and I am a stranger to myself, I should earnestly desire and pray to be searched and proved by His Word and Spirit. If there is any offensive way in me, let me see it and root it out so I can walk through my days in peace and joy.
Ask God to expose hidden sins.
Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart.
The Holy Scriptures are the Word of God. When God helps me understand the unpleasantness of my heart through His Spirit, it convinces powerfully, converts powerfully, and comforts me powerfully. His Word humbles the proud and makes meek the perverse. Sinful habits that have become natural to the soul and rooted deeply in it are separated and cut off by this sword. It will discover my thoughts and purposes, my capacity for vileness, and the wrong principles I am motivated by. The Word will show me all that is in my heart.
Psalm 19:12 Who can detect his own mistake? Cleanse me from hidden sin.
This step is a faith choice, a non-feeling choice, a choice I make out of obedience, not out of my feelings. God will align my feelings to match the choices along the way. And then the new behavior will be genuine, not a mask.
No matter what I think, how I feel, or the horrible circumstances I find myself in, God is working out His purposes in my life in His perfect way, and He will never allow anything to happen to me that is not Father-filtered.
Prepare for Step Three by meditating on Matthew 16:24 If anyone wants to follow Me, he mist deny himself, pick up his cross and follow Me continually.
Knowing God loves me is the foundation of my walk with Him and enables me to present my body daily as a living sacrifice. If you have any doubt of God's love for you, read the following verses:
- Jeremiah 31:3
- Malachi 1:2a
- Isaiah 43:1-4
- Matthew 10:29-31
- Romans 8:29-30
- John 3:16
- 1 John 4:10
- Luke 12:7