Examining Self

How deeply do you examine what you believe in? Can you explain your belief system clearly and rationally so that others can understand what you’re saying and why you believe in Christ as your Lord? What is your purpose and what are the reasons you do what you do? Heart examination is essential to glorifying the Lord in all of life, during the good, the bad, and the ugly seasons as well as during the blessed and beautiful times of life.

Often we think we’re able to explain our faith to others and defend what we believe in, when we’ve never considered developing a reasonable statement of our faith. After all, we attend church regularly, we fellowship often, we have a planned out personal Bible study routine, we can recite a few verses. And we consider the testimony of our commitment and attendance to church to be a sufficient statement to our unsaved family and friends. Isn’t that enough? No, it is not!

To be able to express ourselves clearly we need to think out answers to questions that may be asked of us. Can you explain the Gospel? If you can’t, do you really know it? If you’re not sure, how can you profess It has brought changes to your life? If you can’t, please consider the importance of knowing how to express, to present the Gospel in a clear and definitive manner. The best way to test yourself is to write it out, write it out and examine it Biblically. When we do this we are rehearsing in our minds a logical explanation for our faith. This is a good thing. Often we need to return to the basics of our faith, the fundamental principles to enable us to develop clear and logical explanations.

Reading through a catechism will be a good place to start to confirm what you know, challenge what you are not certain of, and build a foundation from which you can answer questions made to you. To reap the greatest benefit from this try to work through it with others, make it part of your family worship. Work through the questions, review the Scripture references and write out what you understand from your study. Do this with each and every statement of the catechism. Soon you will be able to explain and defend what is important to you, and you will do so with confidence.

• In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

• Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person (Colossians 4:6).

• The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

A catechism for personal and group study can be found at - cdn.desiringgod.org/pdf/blog/A_Baptist_Catechism-new.pdf

#catechism #examine #self