Examine yourself

"But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another."                                              Galatians 6:4.  NKJV

There are a few questions that we would benefit from asking ourselves, periodically:

WHEN WE DO SOMETHING FOR GOD, WHAT IS OUR MOTIVE?
It is so easy to try and compete with someone else. We see a person carrying out some amazing stuff for God, and they appear highly favoured by all, so we may try to do better. If this is the case, if we're not careful, competition can take place between ourselves and the other person - yet they may not realise this. We may try to out-preach or out-teach them or be more successful at leading the worship than they are. We may have more words to give out from the front of the church or just try to be the centre of attention when in that person's presence. So therefore, we need to check ourselves and see if our service is given from selfish motives, instead of wanting to please Jesus.

DO WE GO TO CHURCH FOR THE RIGHT REASONS?
Has church become a habit or do we genuinely go to meet with God. Has going to church become a place where we can meet together and hear the latest gossip about someone? 

When we do things for Jesus out of a pure heart, we will having rejoicing within ourselves. It makes us feel good that we have pleased God; that we have helped someone in their daily walk or we've shown someone the love of Jesus, that they badly needed.
We're not rejoicing because we have competed well with someone or maybe, done better. That will only lead to guilt pretty soon and lead us far away from God. Remember, He will never leave us, but we can move out of His presence by selfish and sinful acts that lead to pride.
The rejoicing that our text today mentions, is believing that we have received God's approval for what we have done or said.

Examining ourselves is very helpful as it gives us a good idea of how we're doing in our walk with Jesus. It is a self-assessment and if done properly, can help us weed out the things that we know should not be there in our lives.

I once heard a preacher say that at the end of the day, when he retired to bed, he would ask God, 'Lord, have I pleased You today?' Just think about that question. That should be our goal on a daily basis, to please God, not any other person; but God first. If we set our sights on this, we will easily please others as we go about our day.

Wherever we go, we will be spreading Jesus all over the place. People may not want us to, 'Preach about God,' to them, but they will not be able to stop us pleasing them.
When I worked in a busy social work office, one worker was notorious  for his small jokes. One day, someone brought him a mug of coffee but the handle was at the back of the mug. He looked over at me and asked if I would turn his mug around so that he could reach the handle. To his surprise, I did. I walked over to his desk and turned the mug round so that he could pick it up without any effort. He was flabbergasted and also embarrassed about this and he never used this again, as far as I know.
It was no hardship for me to do this. I wasn't in the habit of doing this type of thing, I just felt, as he asked, I would please him.

Examining ourselves, and having our sights set on pleasing God each day, has got to be the way forward. If we adopt this attitude, we'll be on the way to living for God.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com