Examine Yourself

I John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

James 1:23-24 Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith: Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless, of course, you fail the test?

We all know when we are sinned against. We all know when the people around us are annoying and short tempered and act with wrong motives. It’s easy to see in other people, but not always easy to see in ourselves. We constantly try to justify our own actions and leave no grace for others. (But that’s another message entirely).

One thing that I know we all need to put into practice is; self examination. You do it to find out if you have breast cancer, why not make sure your soul is in check and that you aren’t sinning against the people around you? 

I chose the three verses above to go along with this post because it speaks to every point I want to make. 1) We are not without sin. So, we do sin against the people we love…and people we don’t love. To claim that we are without sin and that it’s always the other person’s fault and “I am just a victim”, we are deceiving ourselves and keeping our relationships from being more of a blessing to us and our husbands and the people around us. I don’t care if he sins against you, you are not responsible for his choices. You are responsible for yours. You are not perfect. You sin too. 2) If you know what the Bible says about being a submissive, respectful, loving, honoring, trustworthy wife, then that is what you should be. If you are not acting the way God tells you to act, you are in sin. And you are not just sinning against your husband, you are sinning against God because these are his commandments to you. You are supposed to reflect the Scriptures in your actions. It should be a mirror image of who you are. I know it’s hard, you can’t do it without God’s constant help. But you must put forth the effort and the humility. You must repent and you must strive to be a godly woman. No excuses. No “but he’s…” You are supposed to see your reflection in the Bible and I know that most of the time you aren’t. I’m not either. Let’s work on it together. 3) The way you know whether or not you are acting like a good wife is by examining yourself. Hold yourself against Scripture and see how well you measure up. THIS WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU ARE HONEST!! It’s not fun because you will fall short a lot. But it is the right thing to do. Your marriage will be better off. All of the relationships around you will be better. You will be closer to God because you will be spending so much more time with Him (repenting… lol) asking for guidance and courage to face the Scripture and the truth of who you are in comparison to it. Believe me, I don’t like to look at the Word of God and realize that I sin against my husband on a daily basis in one way or another. I would LOVE to be perfect. But the truth of the matter is, I’m not. I can be quick tempered. I nag. I disrespect. You name it, I’ve probably done it. One thing I have realized is that the more I sin against him, the more uptight I become about little things. My sin, in seemingly small areas, makes every little annoyance a bigger and bigger deal until I blow up on him. But the more that I pay attention to what I say, how I act, what my motives are. The more I think before I speak. The more I remember what God says about being a good wife. The smaller the “problems” are. The more relaxed I am. The happier we both are.

Our challenge this week and for the rest of our lives is to examine ourselves, realize that we are in sin (more often than we care to admit), repent and move on. Loving our husbands more and more everyday and nagging a little less.