May 13

2 Chron. 6:30 . Forgive, and deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of men).

Does the content of our hearts ever take God by surprise? Is God in heaven thinking, wow, Solomon just sinned and I didn’t realize this was going to occur? Absolutely not, God knows everything about our hearts. He knows every heart ache we experience and every heart ache we create. He also knows why we do, what we do. We can’t even figure that out most of the times. But God is never surprised at our sin. He is surprised when we don’t ask for forgiveness. What disappoints God is that sin breaks our fellowship and our relationship with him. That is why we need the cross and forgiveness every day of our lives.

Here is a prayer I often pray from the book “Valley of Vision.”

O Lord,
No day of my life has passed
that has not proved me guilty in thy sight.
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in they appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weights me down to hell,
Thy righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in thee plead for my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
to thy throne of boundless grace.
Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me
that by thy stripes I am healed,
that thou wast bruised for my iniquities,
that thy hast been made sin for me
that I might be righteous in thee,
that my grievous sins, my manifold sins, are all forgiven,
buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.
I am guilt, but pardoned,
lost, but saved,
wandering, but found,
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to thy cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me thy springs of divine knowledge,
sparkling like crystal
Flowing clear and unsullied
Through my wilderness of life.

The issues today isn’t, are we guilty? The issue today is, are we forgiven?