Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.– Psalm 19:12
Of all people we most easily deceive ourselves. We have a terrible tendency to misjudge ourselves and think more highly of ourselves than we should. Because of this danger, and it is a danger, we ought to examine ourselves on a regular basis.If we truly saw ourselves as God sees us we would surely respond to the call of God’s Word to “repent”. We don’t see much repentance because people don’t see their needs. And a large number of preachers don’t see the need to help them with this. They are so concerned about being popular that they never speak of sin.
You’ve probably heard the old saying,”Can you ever really know a person?”. Perhaps a better question is,”Do we really know ourselves?” I’m afraid not. In our desire to put ourselves in the best possible light, we not only deceive others, we deceive ourselves. And that can be deadly.
But, how do we see ourselves for what we really are? How do we determine how good or bad we are? What are we looking for? Where do we look? To sum it up quickly, here’s some things we must consider—
1. Prayer— Without the help of God’s Spirit we can never see ourselves as we are.
2. God’s Word— This is our only sure standard of right and wrong. It is through His Word that God reveals His will.
3. Our deeds— Every person shall be judged by their deeds, whether they be good or bad. Our behavior often speaks louder than our beliefs.
4. Our thoughts— God looks upon the heart and we must give an account for the thoughts we entertain. If people knew all of your thoughts they would be horrified.
5. Our motives— Not only does God consider what you do, He considers why you do it. Motive matters to God. You can do the right thing for the wrong reason.
6. Jesus— He is our example. To properly judge ourselves we must consider Him.
So, how are you doing? If you are really honest, not too good. Neither am I. Taking all these things into consideration everyone of us comes up short and we find some reason to repent. What is yours? Now that you’ve found it, what are you going to do about it? Ignore it? Excuse it? Blame somebody else? Hide it? Deny it? Or confess it?
