As we learned back in September, God made each of us “heart/soul/mind/body complexes designed for love.” And, you’ve probably noticed, exhaustion has a way of hiding itself within every aspect of our being, making it hard to identify and address. That’s why, when we're tired, we can take a long nap and wake up no less weary. Or we can go on vacation and come back just as anxious as we left. Perhaps our weariness isn’t always in our bodies. Our hearts, souls, and minds all long for rest, too.
Over the next few weeks, I want to walk us through a series of prayer practices. We’ll consider a verse from a psalm and invite God’s Spirit to not only show us where our weariness might be coming from, but also allow him to take care of us, right where we need his grace.
David was keen on inviting the Spirit of God to search his inner world. He wanted to be known and experience healing. Famously, he asks the Lord to “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!” To David and his first readers, the heart wasn’t simply the seat of emotions; it was the entire interior life. And so what David is doing through this prayer is surrendering to the Father and asking him to teach him about himself.
He has asked, search me as an admission of ignorance.
He asks, know my heart, because he doesn’t understand his own emotions, identity, thoughts, and body with God’s help.
He says, try me, because he knows he’s not his own authority.
He says, know me, because he desire closenss more than comfort.
He wants to know if he’s grieved the Lord, because he longs for healing and reconciliation.
He says, lead me, becuase, with the Heavenly Father, he doesn’t know where to go.
When we act as if we know ourselves better than God knows us, we get tired. By inviting God to search him, David is confessing his uncertainty, need, and weariness. Praying like this is how we practically respond with faith to Jesus own invitation, to come to him if we’re weary and need rest.
I’m looking forward to these next few weeks …
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Written by Jason C. Helveston
Andy Crouch, The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World (New York: Random House, 2022). Crouch describes each person as a "heart-soul-mind-strength complex designed for love" (his rendering of the Shema, Deut 6:5 / Mark 12:30). Our September series adapted his phrasing to heart/soul/mind/body.
Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV): "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!"
On the Hebrew levav ("heart"): in Old Testament usage the heart is not merely the seat of emotion but the control center of the whole inner life - intellect, will, desire, and conscience. See the word study on לֵבָב (Ps 139:23) in Logos Bible Software; cf. Robert W. Saucy, "The Critical Role of the Heart" - or simply keep this as a homiletical claim without citation.
Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... you will find rest for your souls" (ESV).
