David wrote something interesting over two millennia ago.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51:6 (NKJV)
Jesus desires that we live from a place of truth on the inside, the hidden place of the heart. There are two key things in this verse. One, we know what Yahweh desires we live from a place of truth on the inside. The second is that as we turn to Him we find He has committed to making us know wisdom in our spirits, the hidden part. We see this in the verse below.
27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the inner depths of his heart. Proverbs 20:27 (NKJV)
We have a popular expression in our culture, ‘That was my inside voice.’ Meaning we have shared what we were actually thinking, often inappropriately. Jesus desires that we live from such a place of truth on the inside that we can freely share our innermost thoughts. Go back to Psalm 51. This was David’s Psalm of repentance after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed in an attempt to hide his sin. Clearly for a season David had a great struggle with lies in his inward parts and demonstrated a lack of wisdom, yet Yahweh knew everything all along. What both Yahweh and David expressed is a desire for congruence between our inward and outward lives.
Paul expressed this desire and the solution. We need to seek His face with a focus on our inner man being strengthened (3:16) and a recognition that the truth is found in Jesus (4:21).
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 (NKJV)
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:17-24 (NKJV)
We need our minds renewed so that we come to the place that Peter described. While the reference Peter makes is to wives in a husband and wife relationship, as a man I also desire a gentle and quiet spirit. Walking in quiet confidence before Him (Is. 30:15) is a noble pursuit. This is the hidden person of the heart I desire to reflect to those around me.
4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3:4 (NKJV)
