Friday Reflection: Honest Self – Reflection

Happy Friday everyone! Fridays generally represent the end of the work-week for people. We often reflect back on what we accomplished during the week, what goals we met, where we struggled, and make goals for the next week. Our Friday Reflections will take those ideas that we routinely use to evaluate our professional week and apply them to our spiritual week.

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Jeremiah tells us “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” It is so easy to lie to ourselves. In fact, of all the people we may occasionally lie to – we likely lie to ourselves the most frequently and in doing so cause the most harm. We tell ourselves what we want to hear about who we are, what we are doing, and make comparisons to others to make ourselves look and feel good in the comparison. Paul repeatedly warns against comparing ourselves to others and instead we should compare ourselves to Christ to get a more accurate portrayal of who we really are (II Corinthians 10: 12 & II Corinthians 13: 5). If we compare ourselves to others we are unwise, because our heart will fool itself into boasting in those comparisons. Instead, compare we should compare ourselves to Jesus whose spiritual perfection will give us an accurate gauge of how far we still need to go in our walk with the Lord.

But here’s the rub then in our self – reflection. When we accurately compare ourselves to Jesus – we know won’t achieve the spiritual perfection Jesus demonstrated for us while he walked on earth. We realize how short we fall in the comparison. So, do we give up? It is easy to look in the perfect law of liberty, see all your faults, and become discouraged. You walk away thinking you’ll never leave up to it so why try (James 1:22 – 25). I know I’ve felt that way. The struggle to want to be perfect and the knowledge of the reality that I’m not nor will I ever be. Paul struggled with it. He cries out in Romans 7:24 “O, wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?” When we look in the mirror and we don’t let our hearts lie we see the truth about ourselves.

But the Apostle John offers comfort in those times that we engage in true honest self-reflection. “For if our heart, condemns us, God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things (1 John 3:20).” John tells us that when our heart overwhelms us (which will happen when we honestly reflect on our walk with Christ and see all of our imperfections) to NOT let those moments discourage you. Instead, repeat to yourself God knows my heart because the Devil is trying to convince you it is not worth even attempting because you’ll never be perfect like Jesus was. Like with Eve, Satan is telling only partial truths to you. He is right – we’ll never be perfect like Jesus but he is lying when he tells you it isn’t worth trying then. Because God knows if I am trying every day to be better and to live a life that is closer to how He wants me to live each day. And, God loves me for my effort.

Every Friday look back and be honest with yourself about how your walk with God went during the week. Highlight your progress and pinpoint areas that you think you need to improve. Acknowledge moments of defeats and create Godly strategies to tackle that issue in the future. Makes goals – achievable goals – for the next week and ask God to help you pursue a more Godly life in the next week.

So, back to Jeremiah. The heart is deceitful. We lie to ourselves and Satan lies to us about ourselves and our hearts. But God. He never does. He will tell us the truth about who we are and helps us (through His word) cope with those answers and get a little better each day. So, who can know our hearts? God and He is greater than our hearts and he knows all things.