The Heart Exam We All Need
At my annual physical a few months back, the doctor suggested that I have a full heart workup, including an EKG, echocardiogram, stress test, and so on, in addition to the blood work. I was a little anxious about it, but I'm glad I went through the process. The results were encouraging, and knowing my heart was in good shape was great news.
But what if the tests revealed a problem? Would I have been just as glad? I doubt it. Yet the uncovering of significant heart issues can save lives. An exposed problem can lead to a solution, while an undetected heart problem can surely lead to disaster. The only way to health and wisdom is to know the truth—to see reality as opposed to lies, myth, camouflage, and dissembling.
“You try the heart…” - 1 Chronicles 29
That God will ‘try the heart’ is not a pleasant thought at first glance. It sounds rather ominous. And why would God want to do this anyway? Does he need more insider intel on the current state of my heart? No, all things are “naked and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).
So if the heart-trying is not for him, it can only be designed for the benefit of the person whose heart is being tried, or at least, perhaps, for the sake of those around the one being thus examined, which is why this should be part of our regular prayers. David knew this truth and sang his prayer to God for such a heart check-up.
“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 everlasting.”
- Psalm 139
When David acknowledges in his prayer that God tries the heart, he echoes this earlier Psalm-Prayer. David knew that God’s Spirit is on a 'search and destroy' mission in our souls, going after the sinful toxins and camouflaged landmines that will cause the hardening of the attitudes, the nourishing of pet hatreds, and the protection of secret passions that, left unchecked, will grow into the cancers that dilute our communion with God and break our friendship with others.
‘The heart is desperately sick… who can understand it?’ confessed Jeremiah. No one can but God. That’s why we cannot search our hearts and identify our brokenness and sin. There’s an inherent conflict of interest in our self-examinations: we too easily legitimize our grievances and minimize our wrongs. It takes a revelation from God to expose to our eyes those interior, subterranean fault lines that will ultimately rock our world if they are not addressed and healed.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism notes that sin is “any want of conformity to or violation of God's Law.” That’s certainly a fair summary. But it isn’t just these two paths of offense we have to consider. It’s the deeper, secret delight we take in both exits from the highway of holiness. Sin is a terrible power broken only by the gospel’s fiery embrace. Our self-deceiving hearts are in need of a total renovation, not a mere dusting off with the furniture being moved around for a fresh look.
That’s why we must pray that God will try our heart, search it deeply, deliver us from the evil within, and lead us in paths of grace and truth that are the hallmarks of holy love.
Today, we ask of our good and loving Father the most painfully necessary of petitions. We ask God to help us know what is known to him already so that we might more fully and truly repent and walk in humble reliance on his grace, led more and more by his Spirit and less and less by the untamed, poisonous, cleverly disguised monsters that lurk beneath the surface of our pristine image. We ask this for our sake, the sake of our neighbors, and, supremely, for his name's sake.
This leads to a deeper security in the Gospel’s revelation of the Father’s love for us. God is not disillusioned with us; he had no illusions to begin with! Knowing us perfectly, he still loves us relentlessly.
This “gospel astonishment” is part of the truth we also need to discover as a result of our heart exam. John wrote, “We know that if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). It’s amazing that God knowing us as he does, loves us contra-conditionally and perfectly. His loving kindness and mercy in Jesus are unsearchable and rich. We know that if people really knew us, they’d never love us - even those who say they do love us would be tempted to run away in horror. But God runs to us with his grace to meet, welcome, and transform us with his promise and presence. Paul wrote, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
If we write that truth across our hearts, we will always welcome the Spirit’s search-and-destroy missions in our souls while equally rejecting the devil's flaming accusations about our sinfulness. To the Spirit, we can humbly say, “Show me the truth; heal me, and I will be healed.” And to the wicked one, we can boldly reply, “You can’t handle the truth; I am justified in Christ, and it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Hit the road.”
Let us pray:
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.