Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisee! First, clean the inside of the cup, so the outside of it may also become clean. You are like white-washed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:25-28
Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7
My words…
A Prayer for My Insides
You care about my insides – my heart, soul, and mind – because that is the part of me that You see as me. It’s not that you don’t see my hair color, eye color, and the bone spur in my shoulder. I’m sure You do. But that is not the part of me that draws Your attention. You see the invisible me, the part of me that I can’t see. Truthfully, I’m not sure I would choose to see it if I could. You chose to use dirty dishes and tombs as the description of the insides of the Pharisees. What do You see in my insides?
When I opt not to do good because it doesn’t fit in with my time schedule, what does that look like from Your view? Like mold behind a wall? When I neglect to pray for someone who has asked me to do so, what do You see? A tree hollowed out by bugs? I don’t care enough about the lost of this world. That must look absolutely disgusting from Your perspective. My insides need a godly cleansing.
I ask Your invisible Spirit to purify my invisible insides. I am asking You to discipline me. Rid me of the rottenness that is creeping up the sides of my spirit. Exterminate the vermin that hide in the dark recesses of my heart. Scrub my mind clean of the critical judgments I impose on others. And, please Lord, give me the strength to bear up under it.
