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
Richard Foster – “To pray is to change.”
Life Lesson: We do not master prayer, prayer masters us.
The Power of Transformative Prayer
Application 1 – Transformative Prayer unpeels the layers of corruption in my heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Psalm 139:23 – “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.”
“Search Me” invites God to dig deep into our hidden places.
“Test me” has judgment seat overtones.
Application 2 – Transformative Prayer cleanses the impurities from my heart.
Psalm 139:24a – “See if there is any wicked way in me...”
Point: Transformative Prayer opens the way for God to remove anything that he deems wicked.
Application 3 – Transformative Prayer sets my vision on holiness.
Psalm 139:24b – “...and lead me in the way everlasting.”
** Israel often deviated from the “Way”
Jeremiah 6:16 – “Thus says the LORD: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, “We will not walk in it.”
** But Jesus not only showed us the Way back to God, he IS the Way.
John 14:6 – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Point: Transformative Prayer enables us to choose holiness as our preferred lifestyle.
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