Thursday, January 2, 2014

A Prayer for 2014

When one year ends and another one begins, it is pretty common for us to stop, though maybe only for a moment, to take stock of our lives. But should we take the time to do this kind of thing? According to Plato, during Socrates’ trial for corrupting the youth of Athens in 399 B.C. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/scriptorium/2010/02/the-examined-life-of-socrates/). Should you take some time and examine your life?

I believe the quick answer to that question is a qualified yes. Your life should be examined, but it is nothing something that you can do alone, you need help, honestly we all need help to accomplish such a task. Recently I was reminded of why that is in fact the case. Jeremiah wrote these words a long time ago:

Jeremiah 17:9-10 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."

Our hearts, not the physical organ, by heart Jeremiah was speaking of the totality of our inner lives, are not something we understand. And sadly, our inner lives are not very pretty sometimes, yet how we act and the attitudes we project come from that mess. Though we need to be examined, it is not a private activity. As verse 10 shows us, the Lord alone is the One who can do such an examination.

As we embark on a new year, I would like to suggest that with some measure of regularity we need to pray a couple of verses of Scripture and wait and listen carefully for the Lord to answer that prayer. The verses are Psalm 139:23-24:

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!

Most men and undoubtedly many women go through each day at full speed and do not carve out time for the discipline of praying, contemplating, and reflecting over God’s answers. Such an activity may sound to some as a type of useless nasal gazing. But I believe it should sound to us like an incredible gift from God to us. Psalm 139 is written in the context of distress – note the harsh words of verses 19-22. And in that context, the psalmist, presumably David has noted that God’s knowledge of his life is complete and full (verses 1-12). Such knowledge should not surprise us given that God is the One who made us (verses 13-16) and should drive us to worship God (verses 17-18). If the first parts of the Psalm are true, then in a world that is not always what it should be, we may not always be the people we should be. We probably need an examination.

Maybe I am alone in this concern, but I wish I could do parts of 2013 over again, and way too many previous years. I made choices and mistakes that were ill informed, hurtful to others, and just plain stupid.  I know that I am capable of repeating the same actions in 2014 without inviting and heeding God’s examination. I need Him to help me see His discernment of my motives and actions. I need to move toward His transformative work in my life. Without asking for His examination, I will miss what I truly need, which only He can give.


Please pray Psalm 139:23-24 regularly this year.