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Previous | Next God’s examining room
Ralph Gliege
In Psalm 26, David describes his close relationship with the Lord: “I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.”
I certainly cannot boast of that kind of spirituality. However, in the midst of this description of his spirituality, David invites that Lord to do a number of things – “vindicate me”, “test me”, “try me” and “examine my heart and my mind”. These are scary things for him to be inviting the Lord to do. However, note the results: In verse 1, David talked of his spiritual life in the past tense, but after he invited the Lord to examine him, he talks in the present tense: “I walk continually in your truth”; “I do not sit with deceitful men”; “I abhor the assembly of evildoers;” “I love the house where You live”; “I lead a blameless life.”
At times, God thoroughly examines us as He did David. His purpose is not to hurt us, but to make sure that we are in the best of spiritual health. We can protest when He attempts to usher us into the spiritual examining room, we can feel slighted because we feel we are doing so well in our relationship with Him that we don’t need to be examined, or we can willingly invite Him to look into our lives and judge us.
A few years ago, I did something I had never done before. Two other couples, my wife Grace and I travelled to Grand Prairie, Alta. to visit some friends. I knew that they lived on a huge buffalo ranch, but what I hadn’t been told was that we were going to spend our one full day there working with the buffalo. One of our first assignments was to herd the buffalo into a small corral. We were doing this so that we could give these animals their yearly check-up – and most of the buffalo protested.
1. Vindicate me
My job was to open the gate through which the buffalo went onto the weigh scale. On this scale, we could clearly see the brand on the animal, which told us that it belonged to the Adams Ranch. We could also see the ear tag and read the number for that particular animal. The calves that had been born within the year had to be stopped, branded and ear tagged.
David first invited the Lord to vindicate him – to judge him and then pronounce a sentence for or against. Similarly, the Lord examines us closely to see the brand that identifies us as a Christian – the seal of the Holy Spirit. The Lord looks at our ear tag and calls us by name. Do you recall that first time you came into God’s presence and you received His brand identifying you as belonging to Him and giving you the name Christian? At times, we need to go back to Him to receive that assurance that we belong to Him and to hear Him call our name.
2. Test me
Something else happens on that scale. The buffalo get weighed. Their weight is a fairly good indication of their health. David invites the Lord not just to judge him to be a child of God, but also to “test” him – weigh him, investigate him and prove him to be a healthy Christian. We sometimes think our spiritual weight needs to be kept as deep a secret as our physical weight, but God has every right to weigh us publicly. Our spiritual weight can be measured by our love for one another and by our fruit: “All men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35); “This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples” (John 15:8).
3. Try me
Most of the buffalo did not get past the next station without being tried by having several precautionary injections as an assurance against disease. Occasionally, God finds it necessary to try us, too. He gives us an inoculation to make sure that we keep healthy in our relationships and in bearing fruit. The Lord is very creative and finds all kinds of ways (such as small groups) to give us a necessary needle.
4. Examine my heart and my mind
The word “examine” means to refine – to melt down, purge and purify, as is done with gold. This can hurt. There was one last stop before the buffalo were turned loose – they were dehorned. This seemed to be the hardest and most painful stop for them. At times, God has to dehorn us as He examines our heart and mind, and that can be painful. Sometimes our hearts are so filled with material desires that God must either withhold things from us or take things away. Sometimes our hearts are so filled with love for ourselves, other things or persons that God has to humble us and remove that from us. That’s hard. If a buffalo’s horns are removed properly, they will not regrow; otherwise, the animal will have to go through the process another time. We must stand still when God examines our heart and mind so He can properly remove what He needs to; otherwise, He will have to do it again.
Let us invite the Lord to put us in His corral of examination, look at our brand, call us by name, test us on His weigh scale, try us with His special injections, examine our hearts and minds and dehorn us of whatever needs to be removed. This will not be a scary operation if we live the kind of life that David described in Psalm 26.
Ralph Gliege is Conference Minister for the Saskatchewan MB Conference.
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Last modified January 30, 2001.
© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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