EXAMINE ME, O GOD

 EXAMINE ME, O GOD

Ps. 26:2-3 Put me on trial, LORD, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and affections. For I am constantly aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. NLT

Dare you do it? Do you have the guts to ask the Lord to cross-examine you? If not, what are you afraid of? No sin escapes His notice. He knows your thoughts and deeds. It is better to welcome His examinations than it is to fear or resist them. If you don't deal with sin now, you will deal with them later, and later may be too late to do anything about them.

What motivates you? The only motivation a child of God should have is to honor Christ always. We should determine in our hearts to please Him. We should never let self be our motivation. Life is about promoting and exalting Christ for as long as we live in this world.

Are your affections in the right place? If you are longing for and loving the things in this world, your affections are in the wrong place. The Lord, our God, must always be our first love. To love anyone or anything more than God is spiritual adultery. If you love Him, it will be evident in your priorities, how you live and how you speak of Him.

We should always keep our minds on how much God loves us. Everything God does is an act of love. Because He loves us He gives us standards to live by and we must do them. We must determine in our hearts that we will always be governed by His revealed truth.

If you can't honestly say that you are living according to the truth and that you fear facing God's cross-examination of your heart, you need to get alone with God and let Him change you. You need to confess all of your sins before Him and vow in your heart that you will obey Him. You need to stay there alone with God until you know that your heart has been restored to a right relationship with Him. You need to stay there until you know that it is God who moves you and it is God whom you love first and foremost.