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2 P & P Weekly Blog for 15 - 21 March 2025
I write and plan my posts weeks to months in advance, little did we know that our time with Luka-Landis would be so short. July 2024-March 2025. We adopted him at the end of November. What joy he brought us. We are grateful though sad!
I was balancing our checkbook and logging our receipts when our new kitten, Luka, decided to join me. “Look Who’s Keeping an Eye on the Budget” popped into my head immediately, and I started to laugh.
Isn’t it true that no matter where we go or wherever we go, there is always someone observing us? Sometimes, we don’t even notice this, or we’ll look up to discover that another person has indeed taken in some action or word that we’ve spoken.
When this happens, it gives me an opportunity to check in with my Abba Daddy. Why?
Because the Lord sees everything we see, he hears everything that we allow to touch our ears. He goes where we go, and he knows our thoughts and motives.
At one point in my life, this thought was daunting. This truth should always keep us seeking the Lord’s guidance and wisdom for our every decision and choice, right down to our daily and moment-by-moment choices.
But how is the inverse true? How does the Lord knowing us intimately also bring us peace, comfort, and encouragement?
Let’s look to Scripture.
Proverbs 16:2 (NASB1995): “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives.”
Proverbs 21:2 (NASB1995): “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.”
James 4:3 (LSB): “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Psalm 26:2 (NASB1995): “Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and my heart.”
1 Thessalonians 2:4 (LSB): "But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.”
Jeremiah 17:10 (NASB1995): “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.”
Now, let me share a unique perspective. During a challenging circumstance, some false statements were made to me. In this soul-searching, God-seeking, broken moment, the Lord taught me the value of He—and He alone—knowing my thoughts and motives.
If we live unto the Audience of One—others' words will not cease to hurt us—but we have a filter through which to spiritually process things that are not true about us. Another Scripture that has helped me with this is Philippians 4:4-11. Not only do I seek to speak with words that are “right, true, holy, just, noble, praiseworthy, etc.” but I also use this filter—to filter what others speak into my life.
Dear Lord, I invite You to examine my motives, my thoughts, my words, and my actions. As You do, I surrender, Jesus, to the process of Your refining and transformation. Teach me to yield any area that is not as You would have it in my life. And give me strength during times of attack, especially to use opinions as critique to help me grow or to filter them through the lens of Your Spirit. I’m trusting that anything You allow to touch my life will be held in the balance of Your sovereignty on earth and for eternity. Let every area of my life—from my finances to my goals, to my seeking You—be set upon the foundation of Your sacrifice and love for me, I pray. And let everything I do or place I go reflect that You are my Savior; I wish to represent You well! Amen.
If our words, motives, and actions were perceived like a budget (how we spend our time, talent, resources, energy, and pursuits, and even how we process times of pain)—would the Lord—say, “Well done”?
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