← Stay True with Madison Prewett Troutt
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Psalm 139, 23, 24. Search me, 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 of everlasting. What a powerful admission and confession that David is making here. In Psalm 139, he is saying, God, you know me better than I know me. This is one of my favorite prayers to pray. I pray this prayer probably every single day. It's. It's one of those that I just have memorized. And so I'll just pray it kind of wherever I'm, like, folding laundry, or I'm, you know, in my prayer closet, or I'm on a walk, or I'm, you know, whatever. I'm in my car. This is one of my favorite prayers to pray because so often we don't even know the sins we've committed against God. We don't even know all of the anxiety stored up in our heart. We don't even know all. All of the things that we have fixated our minds on that have caused us separation from God and separation from what he's called us to do with our life and in loving other people. And so I love to pray this prayer because I say, God, search me, know me, remove any offensive way in me, anything that would separate me from you, anything that would hinder me from walking in the calling you've put on my life, please remove it, please expose it, please reveal it and take it out of my life. Lead me in the way of ever, everlasting life. This is a prayer of repentance, a prayer of purity, a prayer of acknowledging God's sovereignty. There's so much packed in these two verses in Psalm 139. And I love it because it leads me to all of these other verses that I think about, but I really take away from this passage that it's all about the heart. It talks about in Proverbs 4. Guard your heart, for everything you do will flow from it. So we know the heart is the core of the person, and we see in this, God, search my heart, remove anything in me that is going to keep me from walking in righteousness. And so, as we know in Scripture, we can't walk in righteousness on our own. Nothing we do, nothing we say, nothing we muster up, no wiring that we have, no family that we're born into can give us the righteousness that we need to choose the righteous path, to choose God. It's not our own efforts, it's not our works, but it is the finished work of Jesus Christ that as Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us that he became sin so that in him we could become his righteousness. He exchanged our sin for his righteousness. So he is the one who clothes us in righteousness. Therefore he is the only one who can lead us in righteousness. And that's why David is saying, lead me in the way of everlasting. And it reminds me of Psalm 23, which is another one of my favorite psalms to pray often. And I pray Psalm 23:3, and it says, he leads me along the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Only God can lead us to. To righteousness. Only God can make us righteous. And only God can remove the offensive and anxious and sinful things in us that we feel we can't get free from. And so this is a moment where David is saying, God, I repent. I repent of the things that I know about, and I repent of the things that I don't know about. The things that I've held onto that I'm aware of. That, you know, moment of gossiping about that person. That moment of coveting that thing. That moment of, you know, wanting to look a certain way so I made myself throw up or I starved myself. That moment of spending too much money because I wanted to look really important in those people's eyes. The moment of caring a lot about what. How many followers I have and what people think about me on social media. That moment of wanting to do more for you than even having a relationship with you. The moment of drinking too much. The moment of taking it too far with the person I'm dating, whatever it may be. Those things that you're aware of. But then there's also the things that you aren't aware of, the things that you're not even thinking about right now. And it's so important that we have this posture and this understanding of, I may seem really pure in my own eyes, but. But only you know my heart. God, you are the one who created me. Therefore you're the only one who fully knows me. You know me better than I know me. And so David is saying, God, search me, know me, test me, know my anxious thoughts, see if there is a fence in me, and then remove it and lead me in youn way of righteousness. That's what repentance is. Repentance is acknowledging I'm a sinner. He's the Savior. I've been going this way towards sin, and now I'm choosing to turn in a Completely different direction. And I'm gonna go towards righteousness. I used to be a Sl to sin, but now I'm a slave to righteousness. I used to be bound and mastered by my flesh desires, but now I'm mastered and submitted to the Spirit. And I'm led by the Spirit. And I'm led by where the Spirit is leading me. And the Spirit is leading me to truth. The Spirit is leading me to righteousness. The Spirit is leading me to look more like Jesus. And so David is praying this prayer. But I also love that it's all with a posture of wanting a pure heart. And why does purity matter? Purity is so much more than just about your physical body. When we hear the word pure, immediately we think about, okay, we need to abstain from sex and our singleness, or we need to stay faithful to our partner who we're married to. Purity is so much more than just being faithful to your husband or your wife or being, you know, abstinent in singleness. It's so much more than that. It's about your heart. And purity is the pathway to God's presence. It says in Matthew 5, 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Which tells us that when we pursue God, when we pursue the things of God, when we pursue purity and holiness, we are then able to see the God who is holy, the God who is pure. And the true root of your purity is not in being good enough. It's actually in recognizing that you don't have enough and you submit to the God who is more than enough. The true root of your purity stems from a pursuit of God. Recognizing that God is the one who is pure, recognizing that God is the one who is holy, that he is the one who is powerful, and you yield to him. You submit to him. You submit to his lordship. You ask him for help. You declare your dependence upon him. And so when I pray this prayer daily, this is my heart cry of repentance. This is my heart cry of pursuing purity. And this is my heart cry of declaring my dependence upon God, saying, God, I don't have what it takes. I don't have the ability to be pure and to choose righteous. I don't have the ability to muster up the strength to defeat all of the anxious thoughts that I have on a daily basis. You are the only one who can remove the anxious and offensive thoughts within me. You are the only one who can lead me along a path of purity and righteousness and holiness. And what I love about scripture is that it tells us in First John 1:9, that when we confess our sins to God, when we confess these things to God, he is faithful and just and will cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So not only does he cleanse us of everything that is unrighteous righteousness, but then, as it tells us here in verse 24, he then will also lead us in the way of everlasting life. He will lead us in the way of righteousness. And so, if you'll bow your heads and pray with me, God, we make this the cry of our hearts. We pray. Search us. And I want you to pray this out loud with me. Search me, God. Know my heart, God, would you just search me and remind me right now of how much you know me, that you are the one who formed me, that you are the one who knit me together in my mother's womb, that before I was even born, before I even took my first breath, you had a plan and a purpose for my life. You set me apart. You put good things inside of me. God, remind me right now in this moment of how much you know me, of how much you love me, of how much you see me. And God, I ask you to test me and know my anxious thoughts. God, may I be reminded not only of how much you know me and love me and see me, but also that you are sovereign God, that you are the God on the throne, the one true God, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the creator of all good, the things, the sustainer of the world, the Savior of the world. And so only you can forgive my sin. Only you, Lord, can make dead things alive. Only you can remove the offense and the anxiety that I carry so strongly in my mind and in my heart. Just take a second to remind yourself of God's sovereignty, that only he can forgive you, that only he can set you free. Free from that offense, free from that resentment, free from that bitterness, free from that addiction, free from that anxiety, free from that pain and suffering. Only Jesus can set you free. And then lastly, Lord, we just pray that you would lead us into the way of life, that you would lead us into the way of righteousness. God, you are the God of everlasting. You are the everlasting one. You are the God who was, who is and who is to come. You are the same yesterday, today and forever. We can't even fathom your wisdom. We can't even fathom your greatness. We can't even begin to understand how powerful and beautiful majestic you are. But we do have this understanding and if we didn't before this moment. I pray every person listening makes the decision right now that God, we are sinners, you are the Savior. We submit ourselves to you and say, God, save us. Help us, Rescue us not only from sin and death, but from ourselves. Rescue us from the grip of sin and from our own flesh desires that wants to choose sin and wants to follow the ways of the world. God, would you rescue us from us and would you lead us along the path of everlasting life for your name's sake? And so, God, I just pray that over all of my friends, that in this moment that there would be this breakthrough, that there would be this revelation, that there would be this freedom that would take place, that whatever has been keeping them bound, whatever secrets they've been holding on to, whatever they have not yet confessed to you or to someone else. I pray that in this moment you would highlight, you would expose, you would reveal what that thing is that they've been carrying that they're not meant to carry, that has been separating them from you, that has been keeping them from the intimate relationship you want to have with them. And God, I pray that they would not only recognize it, but they would repent. God, that. That in this moment, if they're able, I just invite you guys to hit your knees or open up your hands or whatever you're able to do and just show a posture of repentance and say, God, I'm. I'm. I'm done. I'm turning from it. I'm choosing you. I'm done with being mastered by sin, and I'm choosing righteousness. God, fill me with your spirit. So, God, pray you would fill every single person with your spirit. We can't do this on our own. It's not our might, it's not our strength. It is the spirit of the living God inside of us that leads us to truth, that leads us to righteousness. And so, God, fill my friends with your spirit. I pray for just a pouring out of your spirit right now on every single person that's listening, that things would be highlighted and exposed that need to be exposed, that sin would be confessed that needs to be confessed not only to you, but also to godly community and God. That there would be a heart of repentance, that we wouldn't stay stuck in our same sinful, shameful ways, God, but that we would turn from that and we would run to your loving arms and to your way, because your way is what leads to life. As your word says in John 14:6, you are the way, the truth and the life. You are the only one who leads to truth and you were the only one that leads to life. And so God, we choose you. And Lord, we pray for a heart of purity. And I just pray purity and holiness over every single person listening. I pray shame off of you in Jesus name. I pray sin off of you in Jesus name. I pray past reoccurring memories that are sinful and shameful off of you in Jesus name and God, I pray that there would just be a purity that would clothe my friends a deep desire to seek purity and holiness because they want to see you, they want to be in relationship with you and they don't want anything that would separate them from you. And so God, help them. Help me. We can't do it on our own. And so God, we just this in this prayer with declaring our dependence upon you, God, we can't do it without you. Just as David has prayed. Lord, we are poor and needy. We are desperate for you. You are not only the God who saves and you are not only the God who sanctifies, but you are the God who sustains. You are the God who leads. And so God, we need your help. And so God, would you lead us? If right now my friends have a lack of clarity or vision or they feel confused or they feel stuck, would you just be their leader? I'm so grateful that you're such an amazing leader. God, would you just lead us along your path for your name's sake? Lord, we love you, we thank you, we praise you in Jesus name, Amen.