Know

'Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!' (14; 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139: 23-24)

This calls for authenticity before God. It's allowing ourselves to be vulnerable before Him. Of all the people, He is to please, yet He also calls us to be real, because if our pleasing Him is through genuine intentions and transformation, He will see through the goodness of what we are going through and guide us to continue the journey with Him.

Our hearts are what contain the essence of who we are. Although I still believe that our concept of the heart is only part of the mind, there is something that tells me that the heart is a part of us that is separate from our own reason. It is where the truth of who we are lives. It is where everything is genuinely rooted - may it be good or evil. And this verse calls us to ask God to know our hearts so that we may be led in the right path.

We need not be self-righteous in the midst of our Creator. Let us remember that He is with us all the time, and He sees things beyond prayer and communication with Him. Although this omniscient and all-knowing, what God is trying to tell us is that we should open our hearts to Him and the path that He would want to lead us to. He has full knowledge of our struggles, and He suffers with us, even greater than we do. God knows every heartache that we suffer, every frustration that ever occurs in our mind, and every burden that we carry. Let us not make Him someone to please by only opening to Him the positive side of who we are. He is ever-loving, and He is the only one who would truly love us for the whole of who we are - real and raw. Even without everything that we know and can be proud of, He is the one who sees through our person and knows our imperfections, yet loves us for them still, because He created us, and He assures us that whatever we have in ourselves is loved and cherished by Him. We are enough, for and in God, we are. 

It is only when we truly open our hearts to God that we are to be led to the right path. Before our God, He does not require us to tell Him everything or to relate everything through words. Sometimes, silence speaks the most sincere thoughts, because it is our hearts that communicate with God. Be still before the presence of the Lord God. Be still. Be real.