Daily Devotional July 15 - Examine yourself

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not you own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates." 2 Corinthians 13:5

It is good for you to examine yourself. I find that the best way is to examine myself in light of the scriptures. No other method will do. Of course we look to others for example and direction, as long as it is commensurate with godly living. But this kind of examination that is mentioned here is personal. The scriptures don't say examine others to see if they are in the faith. There's too much of that going on.

What are some of the steps we can take to examine our faith?
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the very Son of God?
Do you have an interest in living a pure lifestyle?
Are you completely consumed by worldly matters?
How many minutes or hours to you spend reading your Bible?
Are you convinced that it is OK to mix a little sinful living with a little church and all is well?
How many minutes or hours do you pray each day?
Do you get into the presence of God, undisturbed without your cell phone on, for extended periods of time?
Do you tell your friends that you are not interested in their dirty jokes?
Do you support your pastor? I don't mean just putting a couple dollars in the offering plate either. Do you stand behind him and lift him up and bless him and shower him and his family with gifts of money, vacations, domestic pleasantries and assistance with caring for his household. Do you love him and talk only good things about him? Do you stop the conversation when others start complaining about the color of the carpet, the length of the service, the 'skewer the pastor' topic of the day?
Do you have a desire, however small to see others come to know about Jesus, even if it means that you have been designated to be the one to testify of Jesus?
Are you living two lives?
Are you turned off when someone wants to talk about Jesus?
Do you think you know it all and no one can teach you something new about God?
Are you incensed when someone tries to talk to you about your propensities?
Do you read godly literature with hopes of learning a new truth or expanding your horizons?

These things don't make you a Christian nor do some of them disqualify a person as a Christian. We are looking at some of the characteristics of examining ourselves. I believe it is very important to examine our life/lifestyle in light of our calling. You are the best judge of what you might need to do to step it up a little or what you might want to eliminate in your life for it to better represent a right relationship with God. This is one of those great gifts from God to mankind; to be able to see ourselves as we really are and make changes. That's real power.