If you were to meet yourself on the street some morning

[PASTOR AUSTIN A ADEWUNMI]

"Search me, O 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 everlasting way!" Psalm 139:23-24

It will be worth our while--to think seriously of the things in
us--that only God can see. There are sins which are hidden from
ourselves, of which our conscience is not aware--our unknown
errors. The evil in us which lies too deep to be discovered. There is a
SELF in us, which even we ourselves do not see! There are depths of
our being--into which our own eyes cannot pierce. You may say that you
know of no sins, errors, or faults in yourself, and you may be sincere;
still this is not evidence that you are sinless.

Our conscience is not the final court. It is not enough to have
the approval of our own heart. There are errors and evils in the
holiest life on earth--which only God's eye can detect. We must
ask God to search us, if we would be made clean.


We cannot see our own faults--even as our neighbors can see
them. There is wisdom in the wish that we might see ourselves, as
others see us--for it would free us from many a blunder and foolish
notion.

We are prejudiced in our own favor. We are disposed to be charitable
toward our own shortcomings. We make all sorts of allowances for
our own faults. We are wonderfully patient with our own
weaknesses. We are blind to our own blemishes. We look
at our good qualities through magnifying glasses; and at our faults
and errors with the lenses reversed--making them appear very small. We see
only the best of ourselves.

If you were to meet yourself on the street some morning--that
is, the person God sees you to be--you would probably not
recognize yourself!

We remember the little story that the prophet Nathan told King David,
about a rich man's injustice toward a poor man, and how David's anger
flamed up. "This man must die!" cried the king. He did not
recognize himself--in the man he so despised, until Nathan quietly
said, "You are the man!"

We are all too much like David.

If the true chronicle of your life were written in a book, in
the form of a story, and you were to read the chapters
over--you probably would not identify the story as your own!

We do not know our real self. We do not imagine there is so much about
us that is morally ugly and foul, that is positively wicked. But God
searches and knows the innermost and hidden things of our heart!


"Search me, O 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 everlasting way!"