I have often heard it said that everything will be revealed on Judgement Day, that even our deepest, darkest, nastiest secrets will see the light of day at the throne of God. That’s what I’ve been told.
This is, I believe, a distortion of the truth. While it’s clear that God will reward followers based on what they have done with the gifts He has given them, it is also clear that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin.
Have you ever heard someone say, usually with disdain, “They’re only fooling themselves,” or “Who does he think he’s fooling?” We often – no, not often – MOST of us really do deceive ourselves MOST OF THE TIME, and try to put on our “best face” for others. A wise old man once told me, “Inside each of us are three people: there is the me that I see. There is the me that others see. And, there is the me that only God sees.
The Bible tells us that man cannot know his own heart, for it is “deceitful above all things.” God knows it, though. He sees all the closed doors, the locked up cabinets, the hidden passages, and the secret compartments. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
Now, here is the good news. He sees all our secrets and all our sins and loves us anyway.
One more thing…
If we want to follow Jesus… If we want to be holy as He is holy (which God expects of us)… Then we should ask God to search our hearts and reveal to us those places where we hide sins, and then to rid us of those sins.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
– Psalm 51:10
There is an old hymn that we sang when I was just a boy, Search Me, O God. It is my prayer:
Search me, O God, and know my heart today, Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray; See if there be some wicked way in me; Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.- James Orr, 1936.
