How do I know I need to ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart?
Because I’m discontented, angry, frustrated, and restless.
Sorry if you clicked on this thinking you were going to see a complicated answer.
Why is it critical to pray that the Holy Spirit search our hearts when we are discontent? Well, I don’t know about you, but I am pretty weak and fickle guy. Have you ever stopped to think about what really motivates you? Sometimes the answer to that question is sad, comical, or even noble.
The truth is that every one of us has a heart full of mixed motives and loads of self-deception that we probably are not even aware of. We really need to take seriously Paul’s warning about the desires of our flesh in Galatians 5.
What we need is not usually the resolution to our own frustration and discontentment; rather we need a clearer view of how and where we have stopped living for God’s glory and begun living for our own self-interest. This is what the Holy Spirit does.
It is always a beautiful thing when you and your spouse, kid, or friend have one of those “real” conversations. You know the ones. One of those conversations where you open up about frustrations, anger or discontentment that you have, but it doesn’t stop there.
The conversation miraculously keeps going, and the person begins to see where they have stopped living for God and admit they have started living for themselves. Nobody articulates it that way, but their humility, willingness to seek advice and council, growth in self-knowledge and honesty, all of this is evidence of the Spirit’s presence and work in their life. The Holy Spirit leads us to see who we really are, and then He leads us to be honest with others about who we really are. If you are the primary listener in such conversations than you are the recipient of an incredible gift.
We may be completely right about the situation that has created such discontent and frustration, but we will not respond rightly to it if we have the wrong motives.
Former pastor C. John Miller has some really helpful questions to ask ourselves as we pray that God would search our hearts and reveal our motives, especially in times of frustration:
- What is my concern for the glory of God in my life?
- How much am I led by concern for my own comfort and feeling of well-being?
- Do I witness out of enjoyment of God?
- Do I love people?
- Am I repenting regularly?
If we are willing to ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and if we are willing to wrestle with these hard questions, this will keep us from foolishly acting in haste in response to our own frustrations or discontentment.
The Book of Proverbs has it this way: Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. – Proverbs 14:29
Augustine got it right hundreds of years ago: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
And the psalmist prayed, “Search me, 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
My anger, frustration, and discontentment are most often signs that I am in desperate need of our loving God’s leadership by his Spirit into the way everlasting, the way where I am motivated to live for God’s glory and not my own self-interest.
Joey Turner
Pastor of Student Ministries