Psalm 11:5, 7 He will test both the righteous and the wicked, exposing each heart…But remember this, the Righteous Lord loves what is right and just, and every godly one will come into his presence and gaze upon His face.
Nobody likes to be exposed. Covering ourselves goes all the way back the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve realized they were naked apart from God. We fear exposure because we think it will lead to our rejection. But rejecting us is not God’s intention at all! God wants to expose our hearts so we CAN be close to Him. Because of Jesus, sin is not a problem for God. He’s already taken care of it. Messed up thinking, wrong motives, any and all of the yuck we feel like we have to cover up – all of that has been paid for by Jesus on the cross, all we have to do is release it to Him.
But not everything we’re covering up is sin. So often we jump to conclusions with God. “I shouldn’t be feeling this way.” “God please forgive me for…” Often comes out of our mouths before we’ve even given Him the opportunity to talk about it. Really we’re trying to protect ourselves. “I’m going to call myself bad before you can.” A bit childish, yes, but we do it all the time. When God created you, though, He said that you are very good. Yes, you were born with a sin nature and each and every one of us has messed up, but Jesus died on the cross to redeem all that. He LOVES you and He loves who you are! He loves your soul! Your thoughts, your mind, your feelings, your dreams…He loves YOU! And He isn’t intimidated by the mess that needs to get sorted out of what is sin that needs forgiveness, and what are the treasures of who you are and how you and God can think and plan and dream and do together!
Think of it like this, maybe our hearts are like a storage shed that needs some attention. (Currently my outside storage shed is a MESS!) We can avoid it because we’re afraid of what we’ll find, but that only makes things worse. We can torch the whole thing, labeling it all bad and worthless. This might be tempting, but if we do that, we lose everything valuable that is in there. Or, we can invite a friend to go lovingly go through the process with us, one by one sorting it out, getting rid of the junk and restoring what is valuable to an appropriate place. Can you hear the friend chuckle? “Hmm..It’s probably time to get rid of that.” Or, “Oh my goodness that is amazing! I love that!” With a really good friend, the process might take time, but the end result is always worth it. And the time with the friend, invaluable.
God is our best friend. He is in love with your heart and has no desire to torch it! The reason He searches our heart is so we can be free and enjoy the treasures He’s put inside. He doesn’t want anything to come between you and Him because God LIKES you. He likes being with you and He’s excited about who you are and who you can be with Him.
Romans 8:27 God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet He also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, His holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny.
Because of Jesus, we don’t have to fear exposure, we can embrace it. So go ahead and open up the shed, you’re going to love the results.