Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. (Psalm 51:6 NASB)
How do you respond to this verse? Do you figure you’re an honest person and therefore God will give you wisdom? Maybe you acknowledge that God desires inner truth and you have that from Him.
Like most scripture, it’s full of wisdom we often don’t think about or comprehend. Let’s break it down.
You desire truth: all right, since God is truth (Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6), it makes sense that He wants us to have truth. Merriam-Webster defines truth thusly: the truth : the real facts about something : the things that are true.
In the innermost being: He desires truth in our deepest souls. Do we even know ourselves what’s in there?
And in the hidden part: sounds like the deepest part of our souls are hidden. From Him? No. From us? Oh, yeah. How many of us can honestly say we know everything about ourselves?
You will make me know wisdom: True wisdom comes from God (James 1:5). Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge appropriately.
If we have areas in our souls that we don’t know about, how can we honestly offer ourselves as living sacrifices? How can we deny ourselves to follow Him when we remain in ignorance? Trying to do it on our own may sound like faith, but it can be rebellion or fear of exposure.
We need to let Him examine us and to expose the areas that are in error. They may have been hidden through our sin or through wounds we’ve received. We may be afraid of what’s there. They are often areas we don’t see at all. They can also be areas we know are there but choose to ignore.
Either way, the only wise course of action is to allow the exposure and to be willing to look at it. Then we work with Him to reach healing and wholeness. And the only way to do that is to submit.
I never said it was easy to lay down your soul and become a living sacrifice. I’m still finding areas that are hidden and need to be brought to the Light. It’s like the old saying: “I don’t know what I don’t know. And the more I learn, the more I realize my lack of learning.”
Trying to avoid the pain of spiritual surgery and submission sometimes becomes a full-time endeavor. And, try as I might, I still crawl off the altar.
Join me in submission to His searchlight.
Walk with me on the road of healing and of becoming who He meant us to be.
this is part 4 of a series on dying to self
Part 1| Choose Life by Choosing to Die
Part 2| Save Your Life by Losing It
Part 3| No Resuscitation!
Part 4| A Living Sacrifice Requires Inner Honesty
all illustrations courtesy of freedgitalphotos.net