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Go to any airport, government building, or military installation and you will go through security screening before entering. It’s the reality of the world we live in today. Our country has been forced to step up these procedures to protect our homeland.

One of the first things that police, guards, or soldiers do when you enter a building is examine your belongings. Whatever you are carrying – a briefcase, purse, camera, laptop computer, and nowadays, your shoes  – goes on a conveyor belt that moves it through an X-ray machine.

Security personnel see the contents and spot suspicious objects that could be used as weapons. At some checkpoints, the authorities may choose to further inspect any item, emptying the contents.

Then one by one each person is told to walk through a metal detector. It looks like a rectangular archway with sensor devices that beep loudly to alert guards searching for objects like guns or knives.

At these security checkpoints, a person will put keys, coins, watches, money clips, or anything that might set off the alarm into a plastic bowl. After one silently passes through the metal detector, the guards give back your possessions and you can proceed to your destination.

If something in your pocket or on your person causes the alarm to sound, you are told to step aside and hold your arms out straight. A wand-like metal detector is waved around your body to find out what caused it. Security measures now include selecting individuals at random for an additional search.

Nothing or no one capable of causing harm is supposed to escape this scrutiny. It’s no bother for me to wait in line or let a TSA officer look through personal belongings. It makes me feel safer knowing everyone, no matter their age or station in life, goes through this process to protect all of us.

There’s a spiritual lesson from this scenario that we can apply to living the Christian life. Our human nature struggles against the godly life we should live. We simply can’t live godly without God’s help, so we must ask Him for help.

“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” (Psalm 139:23-24).

God sees the person we are on the inside. He knows us better than we know ourselves. In 1 Samuel 16:7, we read that God doesn’t see what man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart!

Asking God to search our hearts is the first step. Next, we need to let Him speak to our heart of hearts, the person that no one but us really sees. Then we must listen and hear what He has to say through His Word and His presence – and do it.

Remember, Hebrews chapter four says no creature is hidden from His sight, but all things are open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

— Jan White has compiled a collection of her columns in her book, “Everyday Faith for Daily Life.”