The Necessity of Self-Examination

Lamentations 3:40–42 (HCSB)

      Let us search out and examine our ways,

      and turn back to the LORD.

      Let us lift up our hearts and ‹our› hands

      to God in heaven:

      We have sinned and rebelled;

      You have not forgiven.

 

Have you heard about the farmer who had a pond that became stagnant and rank? The stench became unbearable. He had to drain it to find the problem. When he took the grate off the drain he found it was completely stopped up—by two huge bullfrogs! But how did they manage to get in there? The holes on the grate were too small for them to swim through. Then he got it—they had swum through when they were tadpoles. Then they got big!  

 

Small vices that go unchecked become big vices. At first the life of the Spirit is only stymied, but after a while it is completely blocked.

 

Someone said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We do not like to examine our hearts for fear of what we might find there. But we must do it if we are to be productive Christians.

 

Let us search out and examine our hearts, and turn back to the Lord! Then revival might come.