Today’s reading comes from 2 Corinthians 13 follow the link provided here to read the ESV online.
There is no greater folly than to be self deceived. It’s one thing for someone to maliciously trick you and cause you to stumble. It’s another thing to trick yourself. Yet, it happens all the time even to the best of us.
I know for me, some one of the things I lie to myself about are thing pertaining to my weight. I tell myself that “It would be bad if I didn’t eat cake for their birthday party” or “I’ll burn it off on the elliptical later.” I’ll weigh and think, “well it’s just water weight” or “I’ deserve this high calorie food because I skipped breakfast today.” It’s not that I engage in the bad or destructive behavior concerning high calorie food, I flat out lie to myself about it. I rationalize it and make it seem as though I’m doing the right thing, when I’m actually doing the wrong thing as it concerns my goal of losing weight.
But that’s just food. What if we lie to ourselves about something infinitely greater than calories and pounds? What if we lied to ourselves about our relationship with God? What if we deceived ourselves into thinking we were true Christians, when we really weren’t?
Paul tells the Corinthians to examine their faith (13:5). They need to be sure that they are the real deal. They don’t want to get to the day of judgement and realize that they bought into a fake faith (Matthew 7:21-23). Faith that was all about what others saw, but wasn’t of any real substance. They were to examine their hearts and lives and look for the fruit of what it is to belong to God. Where we abide in him, fruit will abound (John 15:4). If we continue in immaturity and never seem to grow or produce the fruit of godliness in our lives, we should be concerned for the salvation of our souls.
FATHER, We ask that you would examine our lives. Help us to see and know that we belong to you. Give us great grace to live godly lives and to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit alive in us. I pray that you would test us and if we fail the test that we would come to you for genuine, saving faith. Thank you for your grace in causing us to examine ourselves so that we might be absolutely sure that we belong to you. Thank you for the grace to shepherd your church. IN JESUS NAME, AMEN.
What did you take away from today’s reading? What are your thoughts or questions? Feel free to comment below and enter the discussion.
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