October 19, 2019 – Psalm 139:23–24

Search me, O 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 will mention some [more] ways in which God answers these petitions.17
When people have nothing to try them, they are in great danger of deceiving themselves. Has injustice been done you—has someone refused you honest wages or refused to pay a just debt? Well, under these painful circumstances, what spirit did you manifest? Did you find the Spirit of Christ in you? Perhaps you have been misunderstood and misrepresented; well, how have you borne it? Perhaps you have been treated disrespectfully by those who are under particular obligations to you; well, how did you bear it? Did your indignation rise—did you manifest an un-Christlike spirit? Or did you find the Spirit of Christ was in you? You prayed to be searched, and in answer to your prayer, your children or employees or those related to you, who are under particular obligations to you, treated you in a very improper manner—directly the reverse of what you had a right to expect from them. Though all this was very wrong and very provoking, what has been the effect on you? What has it taught you? And what has it taught those who witnessed the demonstration? Has it brought out your state of mind? Doubtless it has, and if it was not outwardly shown, what were your feelings within? Someone, perhaps, has contradicted you! Can you bear contradiction? Do you bear it well? Were you patient under it? Did you act as Christ would have acted under the circumstances—or did you behave un-Christlike? These things never occur by accident; God designs that every one of them should demonstrate our characters—that they should try us and show what there is in us and reveal to us the springs of action in us. Now when these tests of your character and disposition have been applied, what has been the result? Did you find that you were nothing but the same old sinner yet? that instead of finding Christ in you and his temper demonstrating itself, you found the old self with its deceitful desires?
—Charles G. Finney

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