THIS IS TABLE ROCK FELLOWSHIP – PASTOR RYAN LADEN (DEVOTIONALS)
Slippery Slope
This week we are looking at another spiritual discipline that the Lord calls his faithful and mature disciples to make a part of their everyday walk with God. We are looking at the discipline of self-evaluation.
Up front, we need to be cautioned that self-evaluation without the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and without the truth of God’s word, is a slippery slope that leads to pain and misery. How so?
When we use our own faulty and limited knowledge and opinions to judge the rightness of our own actions and attitudes, we are admittedly working from a place of deficiency. We are filled with justifications, excuses, lies, and false beliefs that all impact our ability to see the truth of our hearts.
Comparison
Another area of challenge that comes from a flawed evaluation of our own hearts and actions is the danger of comparing ourselves to others, and drawing conclusions about ourselves that are based on other sinful people.
We might assume that we are doing great in our walk with God because the person next to us is doing poorly. This tells us nothing about our own condition, only that we perceive another person is in a bad way. We might also make an assumption about someone who seems to be better than us in every way, and thereby convince ourselves that we are failing and falling short.
In the passage that follows, we are challenged to keep our evaluations contained to our own walk with God and our own expressions of faith:
“If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.”
Own It
The thrust of this message from the Apostle Paul is that we need to test ourselves before the Lord so that we do not allow the wins and losses of others to puff us up or deflate us unnecessarily.
Your faith in Christ belongs between you and Jesus. You cannot allow what you see or don’t see in another to speak to your own expression of faithfulness before the Lord. You must own your own faith, and allow the Lord to speak to you about your own journey of submission and obedience.
Another
The Apostle Paul speaks to this same issue in another way in the passage that follows:
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you —unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.”
Personally
Testing and evaluation are a part of our journey of maturity. We cannot work off of assumptions we make based on our own shortsighted thinking. Nor can we allow others to tell us about our own faith. We must live it out with God, directly.
Reflection
As you go through the day today, consider these challenges. Ask yourself:
- Upon what scriptural truth am I resting my opinion about the condition of my heart?
- How am I creating time and space for the Lord to speak into my heart about my true spiritual condition?
- Are there any areas in which I am resting on faulty comparisons to others?
- What does it mean for me to test myself before the Lord?
- Am I willing to invite the Lord into all areas of my life, my emotions, my actions, my relationships, my studies, my business, my ministry?
In Christ,
Ryan Laden
OUR MISSION AS A CHURCH
“TO ENCOURAGE AND EQUIP EACH OTHER IN LOVE TO KNOW JESUS AND MAKE HIM KNOWN”
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