Search and Destroy Against Self!

9/16/2025

“Not long ago, my husband, Ken, was trying to find something in the garage, and in his search, he literally tore it apart. He opened boxes, dumped buckets, rummaged through files, and turned bags inside out. The garage was ransacked, but finally, Ken found the treasured item; the search proved fruitful.

“I think about Ken’s frenzied focus when I read Psalm 139:23-24, which says, “Search me, O God. ... See if there is any offensive way in me” (NIV84). May we have that same feverish focus in searching out our hidden sins! They can be easily found, for the more we connect our sins to the spikes pounded into the body of our Best Friend, the more urgent our search for them. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Well, the Holy Spirit sure does. Even a redeemed heart is in cahoots with sin. I practice the presence of Jesus when I ask him to shine his search-and-destroy spotlight deep inside me. Together we ransack my heart from one chamber to the next; neither of us wants a web of cloaked sins to choke out my warm-hearted devotion to him. Whenever Jesus exposes a mesh of entangled transgressions, I pray, “Rip it out, Lord. And if you catch me toying with this sin again? Slam me with guilt! Do this for your name’s sake.” Practice Jesus’s presence like this, for there’s no mission more fruitful than a clean heart.

“Meditate: Go on a search-and-destroy mission against things in your life that disappoint God.” (Joni Eareckson Tada)

“Search me, O god, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24)

“Grievous,” “Odious”... ANYTHING that makes Him sad or disgusted.

•  The Proof He Lives Is by What He Gives