Scripture Devotion
Not a prayer for judgment — a prayer to be led.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Reflection
It's a bold prayer, and most of us hesitate to pray it: search me — invite the full examination, the heart and the thoughts both, nothing kept back. We tend to want parts of ourselves left unexamined. This prayer asks for the opposite: come in, look everywhere, including the rooms I'd rather keep shut. But notice it isn't a prayer for judgment; it's a prayer for leading. The searching has a purpose: see if there be any wicked way in me, and then — lead me in the way everlasting. The examination isn't the point; the redirection is. It's the prayer of someone who wants to be corrected because they want to be led rightly more than they want to be comfortable. Thursday is a fitting day to pray it: search, and then lead.