A prayer for God to search and know me by Victoria Rilano, read by Liam Arton.

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 ever lasting. Psalm 139, 23-24.

Search me Lord. I'll never forget the first time I stumbled across this passage of

Scripture. It immediately struck me as one of the most dangerous prayers one could ever

pray. Not only does the writer, David, ask the Lord to search his heart. He also asks

him to find every offensive way. On the surface this seemed like an easy thing to ask of the

Lord. Yet the more I prayed the prayer, the more I started to feel it discomfort. No

matter how holy and blameless I believed I was. The Lord was reminding me there was more

work to be done. My offensive ways were many, but God's grace was more plentiful than

I could imagine. As I researched this Psalm, I found it of interest that David would be

the writer of this prayer, imploring the Lord to search him and find every offensive way.

David, a murderer, a doler, and a man with many imperfections took time to seek the Lord

for the truth about himself. In a time where David could have blamed the world around him,

he made a choice to take ownership of his faults and ask the Lord to expose them. He recognized

that even on his best day, his righteousness was like filthy rags, Isaiah 646. In my own life,

I've been the opposite of Psalm 139. If I'm honest, my prayers were that God would search

them. The issues I encountered were surely a reflection of everyone else's flaws, not

my own. Marriage issues were my husband's fault. Parenting problems reflected my children's

temperament. Friendship woes were due to their disloyalty or poor behavior. My prayers

to the Lord were directed at them. I needed the Lord to fix them so that my life could

be better. And I'm certain I'm not the only one, whether we like it or not, we must come

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