Terry Swanson: Hi, my name is Terry Swanson. I’m the dean of men at Baptist College of Ministry. I’d like to tackle the question today.

Do we know our own heart? Do we know what we’re capable of? Do we know how we would react in any given situation?

I think many times we think we do, and then all of a sudden some scenario comes along, some trial at school or at work, maybe in the home. And we react in such a way that surprises us. Maybe we get a bit frustrated, we get discouraged, maybe we get angry and we blame the circumstances and we blame other people.

And we say that because of them or because of this. This is why I said what I said or the way I said it. You know, David was transparent enough in Psalm 139 to say, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.

Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compasses my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word in my tongue. But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Yea, he does know.

You know. Nothing surprises the Lord. He knows what’s in our heart even before it ushers forth from our heart.

You know, on a good day, when things are going well, those things are not going to come out. And we’re very pleased and we can believe at that point that we’re walking with the Lord. We have real victory.

And then maybe the next day something comes along like I’m talking about some kind of trial. And in that trial, we react in one way or another. That clearly is not the way that a believer should be responding.

And instead of stopping and looking at where that’s coming from, we have a tendency to shift the blame. We say, well, if it wasn’t for so and so, I wouldn’t be reacting this way. If it wasn’t for this unique trial, this broken promise, or this difficulty, I wouldn’t be reacting the way that I am.

You know, when we shift the blame onto something else, it’s the beginning of bitterness. And it certainly is not the beginning of victory. In fact, we can’t have victory until we get honest.

David, at the end of Psalm 139 said to the Lord, 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. Do you know that in Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 9, God is very honest with us about our inability to sense what’s in our heart?

Verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it? Then the answer is given in the next verse. I, the Lord, search the heart.

I try the reins. I try the reins. That is, the Lord sends a unique trial.

Now, he may not author the trial, but he certainly allows it at least. Um, a difficult person and a very difficult circumstance. It can be a health issue.

It can be something at work that doesn’t turn out the way that we thought. And it might be something that we didn’t even bring about as a result of sin in our own lives. It’s just something that comes to us.

Much as James says in James chapter 1, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptation or sundry and various trials. You fall into it. Here it is.

And what are we supposed to do in that case? Well, really, if we react in a way that is less than the way that Christ would have responded in that same trial, then we better take a look at that. We got to get honest about this.

You know, I like to occasionally just think through how would Christ respond in any given situation? You know, some of what he did and the way that he lived out his life is given to us in the Scripture. But for example, as he lived out his life in Nazareth as a young boy, much of that is not recorded for us.

And yet every day he got up out of bed. He went and did his chores. He worked his work, he did his academics, whatever it was.

He played with the kids in the town. He did all of those things. They do that in every town, across every nation, around the world.

They do that. And Jesus did it too. Yet the Scripture says of that time, it says this, that he increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

It also says he was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. When Jesus played ball or whatever they played in the town of Nazareth, he played with all his might. He instructed us through his word.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with all thy might, and do it heartily as unto the Lord. We know that Jesus did that in fulfillment of his own character. He played, and he worked with all his might, you know.

But he never responded in a way that was outside of his character. He was always kind. Always loving.

No matter how much effort he was putting into anything, he never sinned. He was the sinless Son of God. You know, when if he played in team sports and he had an opponent, which I’m sure happened, he would, uh, he was going to die for those that were even on the other team.

He was completely for them. He loved them. I wonder if we can say the same as we play and work and live our lives daily in our home.

I wonder if we can say the same that I am for those around me, I love them. Or is it the case that a given trial that Christ sends to us reveals areas of our life that are not depending upon him? Galatians 2:20 says, I am crucified with Christ, my desires, my life, my will.

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

Remember that one that lived out his life in Nazareth? He lives in us. If you are born again, then his life is lived out and is to be lived out in your life.

Are you allowing the life of Christ to be lived out in you. If so, then the trials that come would reveal that. If they reveal, however, that it’s our life being lived out, then frustration will be evident.

Responses of discouragement, depression, maybe even anger and bitterness. Allow the Lord to show you through various trials whose life is being lived out in yours.