REGULAR INTROSPECTION IS A MUST FOR EVERY BELIEVER

Funny as this may sound, I think one of the most difficult things for a number of believers is to be quiet for a period and that includes being quiet before God. Unfortunately for us, this has made it even more difficult for us to examine ourselves. We are unable to ponder on things long enough to know where God is leading us but it is once more time to do an honest self-examination that we may make the required adjustments for us to be correctly positioned because positioning is a major factor in our reaching and enjoying our God given benefits. It is a state of the mind which definitely affects the outward. It is time to look inwards again. One may be deceived into thinking that one does it often enough but it is never too often because the enemy we deal with is very crafty and we were like him living according to that old nature which he knows and understands perfectly making it a little easier than we would like for him to gain root in our lives. Yet it is our job to put off that cunning craftiness. It is our job to change our old ways that God may then clothe us with the new us. No wonder David communed with his heart regularly. It is only to the extent that we take off that old cloak that we can be clothe with the new nature and only that new nature can be strengthened by God to take that which God has laid out for us in the presence of our enemies.

 

2 Corinthians 13: 5a “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves.”

Indeed to ensure that one is still on the right path to heaven, since we can veer off so easily even without meaning to, one needs constant self-examination. I don’t think we understand how easy it is to become the person you said you would never be, without consistent self-examination. For our self-examination to be effective, we need to be sincere with ourselves which is really tough for a number of us because it requires some sort of maturity. Very often we ask sincerity of others yet we cannot be sincere with ourselves. I admit that introspection may sometimes be tough because it is easier to blame others for our own issues and refuse to take responsibility. Seeing one's wrongs comes with some responsibilities which we really would prefer to pass on so we are always the best person as far as we are concerned. We have become so insincere that we are unable to be sincere with God. How can we then improve on ourselves and become the person God made? God crafted every one of us beautifully so all the ugly personality is definitely not of God and is not in any way a reflection of God.

1 Corinthians 5: 8 “So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.”

There is no doubt that we all come to Christ just as we are but according to scriptures, we are to become more like God so that we are then able to manifest His glory. Where we elect to reject that change that makes us more like Him, the challenge is with us and not Him. God provides all the help we would ever need to see and make these changes. Transformation requires a consistent introspection. One must be willing to look inwards sincerely; an experience that the Holy Spirit makes so much easier. We need Him to help us turn on the lights within us and give us the grace to face ourselves.  In my opinion, refusal to look inward sincerely is a decision to hand over the control of one’s life to others; all those others that we blame for things that are actually our fault. It is another way of declaring openly that you will not allow for transformation and as a result are willing to give up a lot of what God ordained for you. The new things God wants to do at different points in our lives may not fit into what would be our old nature at the point where He is ready to do a new thing in our lives. It behooves God not to do new things in our lives if we refuse to move forward in our journey of transformation because we may be ruined if He insists on doing the new thing despite our state.

Luke 5: 37 - 38 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins.”

This translates to a truth which is that we suffer loss when we refuse to make progress on this journey of transformation. One would live and die and not touch all that God ordained for them. The sooner we make a habit of looking inward, the better for us; and the sooner we learn to do it with the help of the Holy Spirit, the faster we move forward on that journey. Fortunately, we are not required to be in a special place for this introspection; neither is there a pattern for doing it. All we need is the help of the Holy Spirit that it may be sincere.