A biopsy of your 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 way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

When David wrote this psalm, in a way he was asking God to take a biopsy of his heart, the kind that a cardiologist cannot do. When God diagnoses one’s inner thoughts, He makes no mistakes. He sees the true condition of the heart.

What are some of the dark spots that can be detected by a spiritual biopsy? Here are a few possibilities: pride, arrogance, hatred, jealousy, coldness, envy, lust, an unbridled tongue, and a host of others.

If God should do a biopsy of your heart and have the angels in the laboratory of heaven put it under the microscope, what do you think they would find?

He already knows what is in your heart. He knows it all. He sees it all, and He takes note of the true condition of your life. The flip side of this truth is that He also knows your love for Him and others that flows from your heart. The New Testament writer of Hebrews put it like this: “He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done” (Hebrews 4:13 tlb).

Instead of thinking of God as a policeman, a judge with a book recording our failures, David thought of Him as a loving Father who will forgive and who will guide us into the path of righteousness.

“But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared,” David wrote in Psalm 130:4.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. I Timothy 6:17-19