Honest Evaluation
Recently, I while I was building some props for church, I needed my tape measure, but I didn’t feel like taking the time to go get it. So I decided to improvise. I grabbed a piece of string that was close by and stretched it out and used it to make my measurement. It worked fine, but when I was putting all my pieces together, it was obvious that the measurements weren’t exact. In the words of one of my good friends, “I wasn’t building a piano.” I didn’t have a good measurement because I wasn’t using the right tool to make a good measurement.
We do this all the time in our walks with Christ. We think that we are all right because we aren’t doing anything “terrible.” We look at the world around us and feel like we pretty much have it all together compared to them. Spiritual complacency sets in and we are never challenged to improve. Why? Because we aren’t using the right guide as our measurement of where we are.
I like reading the Psalms because David who was called a man after God’s own heart repeatedly makes honest evaluations of himself. He was a man who feared God. He wasn’t scared of God. It was healthy fear. It was a fear that pushed him towards God. I wonder if part of his fear of God came from his honest evaluations of himself compared to a Holy and Righteous God. Check out Psalm 25-
11 For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
13 He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
I know I need to make sure I am making honest evaluations of myself and where I am. I am not talking about beating myself up when I fail. I am talking about looking at the standard that was set and pushing myself to improve daily. I will never be able to grow more like Christ if I don’t evaluate which parts of me need to change in order for that to happen.
