Self-Evaluations do not Help You Serve the Lord

This post today was too generic for me to consider to be written before now, but it is not my place to say that there isn't somebody who needs this generic reminder - a reminder that I could use today I'm sure as well.

We as Christians go through our particular lives and try to evaluate our own behavior. Seeing as how we desire to greatly be used by God, and hope for our efforts to be pleasing to the Lord (I can hope anyway), we take time from our days to consider whether our actions have pleased the Lord. 

This is all well and good, but we must be careful in this process. You see, it is easy for us to change our motivations or to deceive ourselves into believing that we are serving the Lord more than we actually are. 

On two different occasions in the book of Proverbs, the Lord proclaims this truth, 

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes." ~Proverbs 12:15

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes." ~Proverbs 21:2

The Lord explains that men have a tendency to find their ways to be the moral and proper way. The book of Ecclesiastes explains this further in chapter 5, verse 1,

"Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil." 

I think we have thus far done much to understand that we don't like to admit even to ourselves that we may have erred, and that we instead tend to make ourselves think that our lives are more holy than they actually are. Now this means that our times of evaluation can be wasted and we may not necessarily expose our faults so that we can (through the Holy Spirit) conquer them.

Know that you aren't perfect, so if when you do an evaluation, you find no flaw in yourself, you have probably done something wrong. But how do you prevent that from happening?

The real thing I find here in those two verses from Proverbs aforementioned is that we should not rely solely upon our own evaluation, but entrust the help of others. Find some brutally honest friends, and ask them to tell you what they think of how you acted. I know, it's a scary thought to have to confide in someone else about your personal life, but it can be so worthwhile in the end.

And then of course, consult the One person who truly understands you and your motivations and who knows whether you are actually pleasing Him in your actions or not. He will reveal to you what you are truly seeking, and help you to seek the right thing.

So don't rely on your own self-evaluations. They are too easy for you to manipulate without you even knowing it. Instead seek some outside sources, like your friends, and of course the Lord. As our two verses in Proverbs say,

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise." ~Proverbs 12:15

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts." ~Proverbs 21:2