Day 3: The Secret Heart
Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being, and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart (Psalm 51:6 - ESV).
"O Lord, You have searched me and You know me," David prayed. "...You perceive my thoughts from afar... Before a word is on my tongue, You, God, know it completely..." (Psalm 139:1-2, 4).
Lord, You know all the details of the secret heart—for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and thought (1 Chronicles 28:9). You have said of Yourself, "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind..." (Jeremiah 17:10). And you have clearly told us the natural condition of the human heart: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 - NKJV).
And since the heart is beyond [human] cure (NIV), You Sent us One— the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), to release it from the deceit and darkness of sin. The world was given Your promise of freedom in Christ: “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).
Help us, O Lord Jesus, to hold to Your teaching. You call us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). For You desire truth in the inward being (Psalm 51:6 - NRSVUE).
You have rescued us from darkness, from the father of lies (John 8:44), and from the deceit that paved the way for sin to enter into the world—and with it, death and destruction. And You place us in supportive community so that we are not hardened by sin's deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:13).
O Lord, You desire to conform us to Your image. Teach us wisdom in the secret heart and truth in the inner being. Help us to uphold justice and truth. Help us to walk in Your light— sharing hope and healing in a world of deception and injustice— a world hardened, deceived, and ravaged by sin.
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