“Lord, you examine me and know me” (Ps 139:1).
No one but God knows the heart of man in its deepest depths. No one can even examine his own heart in depth, unless it is revealed to him in the light of the Spirit of God.
What a wonderful refuge our heavenly Father offers us in the midst of a world in chaos! God knows the intentions of our heart – only He can judge us rightly! In Him we can count on all love and all righteousness.
If we are certain that our Father is a loving Father, the words of the psalmist will be a comfort to us. Then we can again and again present our heart to Him – even when we discover in it all kinds of evil inclinations – asking Him to deliver it from all that displeases Him.
The love of our Father gives us the consolation that we can always count on it and that we are always enveloped by it. But at the same time we know that He knows us to the depths of our being. Precisely this makes us free to entrust ourselves to Him with all our shadows. We do not need to hide from God! There is nothing that He does not know, nothing that He would not know even much better than we do, and He offers us the remedy for all of it.
“I have dispelled your acts of revolt like a cloud and your sins like a mist” (Isa 44:22).
These words can become our constant company, to comfort and strengthen us.
And if we are still in doubt as to whether we are on the right path, let us call upon our Father and say with the psalmist:
“Make sure that I am not on my way to ruin, and guide me on the road of eternity” (Ps 138:24).
He will answer us!