Inside Out

Jeremiah‬ ‭17:10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“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.”

In this verse, God says he searches the heart and tests the mind; yet he ends by saying he “gives” according to our ways and our deeds. There’s a lot of gravity in this if we really stop to think about it—that our deeds are the evidence of what’s inside our hearts. 

As elementary as it sounds, we have to start inside if we want to see change outside. We all know this. It’s a principle found all throughout scripture, and we’ve heard it a million times. But sometimes the most basic truths we hear again and again can be the very things we tend to overlook the most. Sometimes familiarity breeds complacency, but this is a principle we cannot grow complacent about.

Maybe this year we hope to be more patient with our children or speak more kindly to our spouse. Maybe we hope to show more kindness to someone who wronged us or more grace to a co-worker. Maybe we hope to make more decisions out of faith and less decisions out of fear. Maybe we hope to serve more at our church or give more to things that matter. Maybe we hope to spend more time consuming the Word of God and less time on social media or television.

These are all great goals, but they won’t come to long-term fruition if they don’t stem from a deep, internal place. We can only fake things behaviorally for so long. And who wants to do that anyway?! It doesn’t work to tackle these types of goals from the outside in—they have to be tackled from the inside out.  

I think this is why David prayed so many prayers like these:

Psalm 26:2

Examine me, LORD, and put me to the test; Refine my mind and my heart.

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, God…

Psalm 139:23

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

So let’s start this year praying the prayers David prayed. It takes courage to pray prayers like this, but let’s give God permission to have his way in us so he can have his way through us!