Hidden Idols

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23–24

D.L. MOODY
If we should all honestly make this prayer once every day, there would be a good deal of change in our lives. “Search ME”—not my neighbor. It is so easy to pray for other people but so hard to get home to ourselves. I am afraid that we who are busy in the Lord’s work are especially in danger of neglecting our own vineyard.
There is a difference between God searching me and my searching myself. I may search my heart and pronounce it all right, but when God searches me as with a lighted candle, a good many things will come to light that perhaps I knew nothing about.

ERWIN LUTZER
I have prayed the above prayer often, and I trust you have too. To what extent are we willing to be obedient to what God asks us to do? God shows us our cherished sins and exposes our idols when we are in His presence. Remember how God tested Abraham to see if Isaac had become an idol in his life? God chooses what is most precious to us to test us.
When David wrote Psalm 139, he began with, “You have searched me and known me” and yet when he came to the end of the psalm, he prayed, “Lord search me.” He began by affirming that God had already searched him, and now prays for God to show him what he needs to see. All sins or idols compete with the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

PRAYER
Father, only you can expose the idolatries of my heart. Search me and lead me to you.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
What is your greatest Idol in your life?

Would you lay it down so that God would hold your love?