Self Check

Abel Hernandez

Ephesians 4: 17-24

It’s good to ever so often do a self-check on our lives. We can easily go through life not realizing that little by little we start veering off our path. And it’s not any ordinary path we go astray from, but a path and life that we were called to live by God Himself.

We forget how easy it can be for some of us to fall back in our old ways. The ways that alienated us from Christ. Whether it’s being angry at people, gossiping, lusting, stealing, etc. Falling back into our old ways has some major implications. Besides separating us from the will of God, we become exactly what the non-believing world wants. They want to see us and call us out for all our faults. This gives them permission to discredit God and validate their un belief. Now I know that my actions won’t change a person’s heart. I believe God is the only one that can do that. However, I do believe that we are called to be different. In that difference, our desire may be that others see something that is foreign in a good way. Maybe that sparks a conversation that may lead someone to faith. Maybe our actions may help someone see what it means to be Christlike.

Besides behavior modifications (doesn’t save us), doing a self-check also fixes our eyes back on who we live for. We don’t live for ourselves. We live to glorify God in all we do. This can be not only from what we do but how we think. Yes we may be able to guard our mouth, behave, and do the right things, however if our minds and our hearts are not aligned with God, how do we know what to do.

More importantly, doing a self-check puts our own lives and mission back into perspective. It’s a time to ask ourselves the tough questions. Are we walking in line with God or are we now so off course that we forgot what it’s like to be in step with the spirit? There are going to be people who remain hardened. But you were called. You were called to something more. Therefore, don’t give yourself up to greed, slander, gossip, and all other sorts of impurity.

There will always be distractions in this world. My desire and hope are that we all continue to grow in our faith. That we become more like Christ every day. Yes, we will make mistakes. We know that. The difference is in our hearts desire. Let’s continue to renew our minds so that we may remain sober minded so that we may resist the enemy. Remember that our lives will look different. We are no longer who we use to be. Our hearts have been softened and therefore let’s practice what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Ephesians 4:17–24
The New Life
[17] Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. [18] They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. [19] They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. [20] But that is not the way you learned Christ!—[21] assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, [23] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (ESV)

Romans 6:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

Colossians 3:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

Romans 6:4 New International Version (NIV)
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

This can be not only from what we do but how we think. Yes we may be able to guard our mouth, behave, and do the right things, however if our minds and our hearts are not aligned with God, how do we know what to do.”