IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

Date: Dec. 9, 2016

Passage

Psalm 139:1-24  (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

  O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
  You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
  You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
  Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
  You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.
  Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
  If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10   even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
11   If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
12   even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.
13   For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14   I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
  Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15   My frame was not hidden from you,
  when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16   Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
  in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.
17   How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18   If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.
19   Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
20   They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.
21   Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22   I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
23   Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
24   And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 139:23,24

  Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!

First, where can I go from your Spirit? (1-12). Some people are good at hiding from difficult jobs and demanding people--even in the age of beepers! No one, however, can hide from God. He knows our inmost thoughts. He knows us better than we know ourselves. His Spirit is with us when we climb to the heights or when we sink to the depths. God knows us because he loves us. His purpose is to bless us, to make our lives useful and joyful.

Second, your created me (13-18). My existence is not an accident. God personally created me for his own good purpose (Eph 2:10). My life has meaning when I fulfill God's purpose for me. God himself is at work in the womb of each mother to create a human being in his image.

Third, I hate those who hate you, Lord (19-24). David loved God--so he hated those who hate God. David did not know himself. I do not know myself, either, so I asked God to search and test my heart.

Prayer: Lord, search me and know my heart and lead me in the way everlasting.

One Word: God created me to serve him

Daily Bread

Complacent or Victorious?

Revelation 3:1-13

Key Verse: 3:5

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

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