God-directed scrutiny - Identity 16

This is a picture taken in Puerto Vallarta. Notice the contrast in size between the "rising Christ" and the people in the lower left.

We're examining a God-directed self scrutiny in our quest for a healthier self esteem, uncovering that within that stifles our dependency on and freedom in Jesus Christ. God examines us through four different media: direct search, by His countenance, by the Word and through people.

1.) God's direct search:
JER 17:9-10 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
This describes that gentle prick of conscience that we sometimes sense. God says: "no Ray, you're not loving your wife like she deserves. Cut out that selfishness. Love her like I've loved you."
God, search my heart!

2.) God's countenance:
Psalm 90:8 (Amp) "Our iniquities, our secret heart and its sins which we would so like to conceal even from ourselves, you have set in the revealing light of your countenance."
Do you set aside time most every day when you're alone with God - studying the Bible, praying, being quiet? This is so important. As we sit in his presence, His countenance enlightens our innermost being, revealing that which needs change or growth.

3.) God's Word:
2TIM 3:16-17 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
and
HEB 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
Most of us spend so little time in the Word, we're not only ignorant of its teachings and principles but deaf to its probing power that excises spiritual cancer like a surgeon’s scalpel.

This ignorance of the Word reminds me of the anecdote told of the little boy who was asked to tell the story of the Good Samaritan. Here is the way he told it:
"There was a good Samaritan going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thorns and they sprang up and choked him and left him half dead.
"And he said, 'I will arise,' and he arose and came to a tree and he got hung on the limb and he hung there for forty days and forty nights, and the ravens did feed him. Delilah, she came along with a pair of shears and cut off his hair and he fell on stony ground.
"He said,’ I will arise,' and he came to a wall and Jezebel was sitting on the wall and she mocked him and he said 'throw her down,' and they threw her down.
"He said, 'throw her down seventy times seven and great was the fall thereof and of the fragments that remained they picked up twelve baskets full. And whose wife will she be in the resurrection?"


Hopefully our knowledge of the Word is a bit more coherent than this chap's. I personally don't see how we can get along without at least 30 minutes most every day spent in concentrated Bible reading, study and prayer.
God examines us by direct search, his countenance, the Word and

4.) By people.
Hebrews 3:12-13 (Amp) "Therefore beware brethren; take care lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart - which refuses to cleave to, trust in and rely on Him - leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God. But instead warn (admonish, urge and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened into settled rebellion by the deceitfulness of sin - that is, by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamour of his sin may play on him."

Do you have a friend or a support group that helps you with accountability, who out of care and love can gently confront you when something is blocking your growth?
It has been said that a friend is one who won't get in your way..... unless you're headed down. Are you blessed to have a friend like that? If not, endeavor to build a relationship that calls for mutual accountability.
As we allow God's scrutiny to continue in our lives and we respond, there is less self-centered dysfunction, and a greater filling of God's character within - more joy, peace, contentment, wisdom and everything else that God says is available to us.

Revelation 3:19 (Amp) Those whom I dearly and tenderly love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten, that is, I discipline and instruct them. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal, and repent - changing your mind and attitude.