By Lisa Wilmore
Scripture: Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored….( 2 Corinthians 13:5-9).
My Brothers and Sisters and Christ,
First, allow me to acknowledge, our Savior, Jesus. The One who gave His life so that you and I might live. His promises are authentic. He has remained faithful and will never forsake us. What a mighty God we serve!
Second, I pray that God’s blessings are continuous in your lives and strength has been restored to those who may have become weak. I am elated to be able to come to you once again to share a word of encouragement.
Next, many of us utilize time in the year or month to visit the doctors to determine our physical conditions. During the examinations, we ask the doctors specific questions as it relates to our bodies while trying to make suggestions of how to deal with some of the issues we are experiencing. In the final analysis, the doctors may administer a series of tests to examine the problems in order to make informed decisions on how to handle our ailments. In like manner, we as Christians, as noted by the Apostle Paul, must administer Spiritual checkups in order to determine if we are in Christ Jesus as we presume to be. Are you ok? When was the last time you examined yourself?
In our noted text, Paul writes to the Corinthian Church and asks them to “Examine yourselves to whether you are in the faith”. In other words, ask yourselves, “Am I really a Christian?” Undoubtably, the Corinthians were criticizing others, namely Paul, but failed to examine themselves (Redpath). Some Christians criticize and examine others while ignoring their own self-examination. Before attempting to examine others, we must examine ourselves, first.
Lastly, it is essential that we give ourselves a Spiritual checkup to determine if we truly have Jesus Christ in our hearts. Interestingly, when we focus on our well-being and our Spiritual growth, we become conscious of our walk with Christ and are ready to make the necessary changes as the Holy Spirit teaches us.
