“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 139:23-24
I remember well watching my daughter playing with her friends when they were little. Beautiful little girls running around the house and garden in princess dresses, all pretending to be the hero of their favourite story or film. It was quite funny sitting with other mums drinking our tea and hearing the conversations going back and forth. “I’m Lucy” my Narnia obsessed daughter would cry out to claim her favourite character as her own. “I’m Princess Belle” would come a friends’ reply. No one wanted to play the villain. Villains were evil and princesses were good. Princesses conquered fears, giants, and stopped the big bad villains in their tracks. The memories of their squeals of delight still ring in my ears as they overcame the imaginary villain, and they put their world to rights again.
Our days of princess dressed superheroes are long gone now as my teen sits on the sofa beating villains in video games or watching superhero movies with her dad, but the general concept is the same. We all like to relate to the hero more than the villain. This made me think of how I read my bible and whether I tend to look at my own life through rather rosier coloured glasses than perhaps I should. For example, when I read the stories of Moses and the exodus from Egypt, I like to relate to the Israelites and their journey. But how often do I allow myself to ask God to reveal the flaws in my life that are more aligned to Pharaoh than Moses?
None of us are perfect, and we are all being made more and more into the likeness of Christ. But in order for God to do this, sometimes He calls us to look in the mirror of His word for Him to reveal the areas He wants to change with us. This is not to allow ourselves to be beaten down with condemnation for where we fail, but rather to allow God to renew us and therefore release our God given potential. In Psalm 139:23-24, we read how David asks God to search his heart and reveal those things that God wants to change. Are we, like David, willing to let God reveal the Pharaoh in our hearts in order for Him to let loose the Moses of our potential?
Photo by Марьян Блан | @marjanblan on Unsplash
