Sometimes you have to dig...

If you have known me for any length of time, you know that some of my favorite verses are about controlling my tongue.  My father was a sailor and had the mouth to match.  I grew up on naval military bases, which translates to a lot of sailor's children.  I can remember being in 5th grade on the playground with some of my friends who endeavored to "teach" me the proper way to swear.  Having come to know Jesus much later in life, overcoming my mouth has been an ongoing task. 

Recently I was studying Psalm 19.  Last year, Psalm 19:14 was my verse: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.  I said a prayer before studying for the Spirit to speak to me as I read and I totally expected another message on my mouth.  But God is good and gives us what we need.

But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. ~Psalm 19:12-13

 You see, life has been throwing some pretty big curve balls at me.  And some of those curve balls revealed some long buried forgiveness issues.  Issues that I thought had been dealt with and that I had moved on from.  The Spirit, however, made sure to show me that I was mistaken, which caused me to examine myself and start addressing my heart condition....again.

Now I am not saying that every one of you reading this has some hidden sin buried way down deep.  But I do want you to ask yourself, when is the last time you asked God to reveal any hidden faults to you?  Honestly, it isn't something that I often do.  It hurts.  It reveals an ugliness that I would rather not see.  It reminds me that I still have a lot of areas that God needs to reform in my life.  But if we don't take the time to examine ourselves, we miss the blessing of blamelessness.

Noah was blameless (Genesis 6:9) in the midst of a world that had turned against God.  That doesn't mean he lived a perfect life, only that he made every effort to follow God.  David, who wrote this particular Psalm, was a favorite of God.  That is astonishing when you remember that he committed adultery and murder.  God isn't asking for perfection.  Instead, He requires us to be honest, both with ourselves and with Him, so that we can be shaped, molded and perfected.  This is why we must address our hidden faults, and doing so leads to living a blameless life innocent of great transgressions.  And that is what I want, even if it means facing the buried ugliness in my heart.   Sometimes, you just have to dig....