JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Eye on Integrity is based on Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24.

David prayed, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

It takes humility to pray this kind of prayer. David was inviting God into the very heart of his ambitions and desires. He was also open to the correction of the Lord. David did not want anything in his life to offend God. He wanted sinful ambition to be replaced by godly ambition.

Like an operating physician, God digs beneath the surface of our lives to probe the mind and heart for the purpose of purification and healing.

Walking with an open heart to God is a virtue to embrace for our lives in the Year of Integrity.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com

JOHN SHIRK – In the Year of Exploration, today’s Reason to Believe is the snowflake.

God has made each snowflake unique with different shapes and different sizes. The variety of snowflakes reminds us that God has made each human with their unique characteristics. In Psalm 139, verse 14, David said to God, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

In the Bible, snow is associated with purity, which is the result of God’s forgiveness of a sin-stained heart. After confessing his sin to the LORD, David prayed, “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” In Isaiah 1:18, the LORD said, “Come now let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” God’s grace is the cleansing agent to clear us from the guilt of our wrongdoing and make our hearts clean.

A snowflake reminds us of the purification that comes through faith in Jesus and is a reason to believe in God’s good news.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com