Becoming Like Jesus: PrayerSample

Search Me

Confession forms us into the kind of people who can love God with all that we are and love others the same way Jesus has loved us. How? By helping us identify the spaces in our lives that don’t belong so that Jesus can make us whole.

Today, we are going to pray a prayer that David prayed, inviting God to search us, know us, and lead us in a new direction.

Pray…

Heavenly Father, I want to be a person who loves you with all I am and loves others like Jesus does. Please point out to me the areas where that is not true of me yet. Jesus, reveal your love to me in a new way today. Holy Spirit, help me hear what you are speaking and see what you want to show me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Read…

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 NIV

Consider…

David does something really cool in this prayer. He has just spent the last 22 verses describing how God knows everything about us, every detail about our lives. And yet, here in verse 23, David asks God to search and know him. If God already knows everything about us, why would David ask that?

Because he knows that confession brings freedom. He knows that bottling things up and burying them down is toxic for our souls. He knows there’s a better way. It starts with giving God permission to show him the things that may be hard to see and say the things that may be hard to hear. Because that’s what real friends do. That’s what it means to really be seen and known. And that’s really what we all want. Someone to see us fully and love us completely.

The good news is, that’s exactly what God does. He knows everything about you, even the ugly stuff, and He loves you so completely that He died to save you. Pray, like David, in light of that truth today.

Practice…

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 NIV

As you pray today, simply follow along with David’s prayer. Read all of Psalm 139 to remind yourself of how much God cares about you. And then invite God into the deeper parts of your heart. Take off the mask. Stop putting on a show. Be real and be raw. He can handle it.

Whatever God shows you, respond with confession and confident trust that He still loves you.

Listen…

Create space to experience God’s presence by getting quiet, getting alone, and asking Him to speak. Start by setting a timer for five minutes.

Next, ask God to speak to you.

When you get distracted, because you will get distracted, bring your focus back to God by repeating the first words of the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father…”

When the timer ends, thank God for the time you got to spend with Him, then head into your day looking for opportunities to better serve Him and serve others.