But you, O Lord, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you.
– Jeremiah 12:3
Wow. What a verse. Just let this soak in and meditate on this. Jeremiah says, “You, oh, Lord, know me”. Which goes all the way back to the first chapter in this book. Not only does God know Jeremiah, but God formed Jeremiah in the womb. God knows Jeremiah better than Jeremiah knows himself. “You, oh Lord, know me, you see me, you see everything about me”. Again, “You see more things in me than I can see in myself”.
Jeremiah 12:3 pictures a God who examines the motives beneath the surface.
All of us have blind spots, things that we can’t see in our own lives, and God sees them all. He knows us. He sees us. And Jeremiah says, “You test my heart toward you. You know the motives of my heart”. “God, you know the state of my heart. You know the true desires of my heart”. Again, “Better than I know myself”.
And I read this, and I’m just driven to pray that God would help me see myself the way he sees me, that God would help you see yourself the way he sees you, and knows you. When you think about it, we all desperately need this. I think about 1 Corinthians 4 when Paul’s talking about how other people are saying this about him, but they don’t actually know him.
And then he says, “I don’t even know myself completely. And I’m not my own judge. But God is my judge, and he sees and knows everything”. So don’t see yourself through the eyes of others and what they say or what they think. And don’t even see yourself through the eyes of what you say or what you think. See yourself through the eyes of what God says. God knows and God sees.
Jeremiah 12:3 encourages us to align our self-perception with God’s truth.
Oh God, we pray for that kind of vision. We pray that you would help us to see ourselves through your eyes, through the eyes of the One who made us, formed us in our mother’s womb, and knows us inside and out. Like Psalm 139 says, “Whose thoughts about us are marvelous”.
God, help us to see how much you love us. Lord, help us to see what it means to be made in your image. God, help us to see our sin like you see it. Help us to hate it like you hate it. Help us to confess everything we need to confess. God, we pray that even after this podcast is over, you would lead us by your Spirit in time of examination of our hearts, on what in our hearts right now is not pleasing to you, and what in our lives is not glorifying and honoring to you.
God, we pray for your help to see ourselves truly and not just us, to see you truly, to see the world around us truly, accurately. Help us to see others as you see them. Love them. Help us to see the nations of the world as you see them.
Prayer for the Golla People
God, help us to see the Golla people of India, 150,000 Odia-speaking men, women, children, Hindu worshipers. Help us to see them as you see them. Even right now, God, give us spiritual sight to see the state of the Golla without the gospel and to live accordingly, to pray right now accordingly. God, please, please, please, we pray, we plead for spiritual victory in the heavenly realms for the spread of the gospel to the Golla people of India.
Please, God, may it be so. We pray. Hear our prayers right now, and may they be a part of your plan for the spread of your glory. Open eyes among the Golla. Cause disciples to be made, churches to be planted among the Golla. We pray for this, Oh God. Help us to live today with spiritual sight, with your perspective on who we are, on who you are, on everybody around us, the world around us, and how you’ve called us to live in it. We pray that you’d help us to live with this spiritual sight today. In Jesus’ name, we pray, according to Jeremiah 12:3. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
