A search warrant is an instrument of the court which allows law enforcement agents to search for personal information. A target of the search can be an automobile, house, person, or other personally owned property. There is generally good reasonable evidence for such a search.

Most of us have never experienced this kind of personal invasion. We have lived clean lives which haven’t raised red flags to government officials. We’ve tried, to the best of our abilities, to treat our neighbors with kindness, paid our taxes, provided for our families, and lived peacefully with our fellow man.

But I wonder how often have we considered a more private search than even one carried out by law enforcement personnel? Each one of us is generally concerned with our outward appearances. We like for people, in general, to think well of our attitudes and actions. But sometimes, if not often, our external efforts are condemned by our personal internal attitudes.

I was in a stewardship revival with a pastor. As we walked down the hallway one afternoon, an elderly couple was coming toward us. The pastor greeted them with a big smile, friendly chatter, and a big hand shake. After a moment of pleasant introductions and conversation, we proceeded on down the hallway. As we rounded the corner of the hall, the pastor looked at me with a disdaining look and harshly spoke, “They just gripe my soul!” He actually used another word for “soul,” but I’ll kindly translate for you readers. I couldn’t believe my ears! Those words killed his act of kindness in the hallway.

The Psalm writer David has given to each one of us a challenge. It is recorded in the Bible in Psalm 139:23. There David issues to God a search warrant into his life. “Search me, 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.”

Before you get all fired up and make a rash commitment to follow David’s example, allow me to give you a warning. If you aren’t serious about making course corrections in your life, it would be best not to commit to such a search, because the search-light He will use is the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

Such a search will involve His personal knowledge of your heart. The heart was thought to be the thinking process of the soul, the emotional seat of one’s life. In fact, when one’s mind is distressed or burdened with much concern, one’s emotions are deeply effected.

David quickly moves to another point in the search. He seeks God so He will test him. Have you ever prayed for God to test you? And yet, it would be good for us to know just how many of our actions are real concerns for people and the will of God.