“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me, and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24 NLT).

If it Offends God, I Don’t Want it!

We thought surely, we were all going to die!!!

I recall one night in the early 1970s after we had dropped some people off at home after church. It was raining hard! My dad was driving his blue Plymouth Fury station wagon and three of my sisters and I were also in the car. Suddenly, he hit a slick spot in the road and the car began spinning rapidly and wildly in circles. Everybody was screaming and expecting to die when the car eventually landed on its side held up by some tree saplings on a rather deep slope—everybody, except Dad. His only words were, “Well, I guess we better see if we can get out of here.”  

Each one of us is a product of our lived experiences. Once back in about 2009 when I was a school principal, almost everything that could go wrong in a single day– did! When the final straw broke, so to speak, one of my assistant principals ran up to me in a panic to share the latest “catastrophe.” She expected me to respond in kind. I looked at her and said, “Well, I guess we’d better think this through so we can get it resolved.” She stared at me for a moment, then said, “I just don’t understand how you can always be so calm in these situations.” Why didn’t my father panic and scream like the rest of us when the car was spinning around in a blinding rain in the middle of that two-lane road?  Isn’t that what you do when you think you are about to be crushed and banged to death? That’s what the Israelites did in Numbers 14. 

After all the signs and wonders, God performed in Egypt; after He parted the waters of the Red Sea for them; after he led them and fed them in the wilderness, the Israelites panicked and succumbed to fear when it was time to enter the Promised Land, because they heard a report that there were giants in the land. Their great fear and panic were offensive to God. He was offended because they had seen what He had done for them in the past. My father was not afraid because he had seen God bring him through so many dire situations in the past. I did not panic at school that day because my father’s response in that situation made a lasting impression on me. Some of who he was had been transferred to me through that lived experience.

Each one of us has anxious thoughts at times. They are automatic. That is why David said in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God…test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you.” Point it out so I can get rid of it and follow you along the secure path of everlasting life. Trust God in every situation and do not offend him by panicking! If it offends God, take it away from me!

Btw, two strangers pulled alongside our car that night in the ‘70s helped us out of the car and took us home. The situation at school in 2009 was also resolved in short order. Anything you put in God’s hands gets handled in the right way!

Focus Quote: “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything…Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.”  

 –Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

 

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Coming Soon! Faith For Fiery Trials Vol. 2, Men’s Ed. Co-authored by A. Sumner!