Sometimes life gets busy or you get stuck in a routine and things can slide. You might find you are moving your boundaries or letting things slip. Examining your life periodically is the only way you will be able to see a need for a course correction. When you bring God into this conversation, through His Spirit and His Word, He will guide you and direct you in the ways you need to adjust or maintain your integrity. This post provides ten great guidelines you can use for the rest of your life to make sure you have the kind of integrity that is pleasing to God.
"10 Questions for Examining Your Life" by Colin Smith
Examining your life is essential to your growth as a Christian believer. Seeing your own sins and failings will make it possible for you to confess, repent, find forgiveness, and grow in grace. These are the steps by which we move forward in the Christian life. If you can’t see your own failings, you can’t make progress.
Self-examination is also a dangerous business. Satan will try to subvert your self-examination by pulling you down into self-condemnation and despair. So be careful. While you have one eye focused on your sin and failure, keep the other eye focused on God’s grace given to you in Jesus Christ.
God has given two gifts to help you examine yourself successfully. These are His Word and His Spirit. The Word will show you sins and failings. The Spirit will open your eyes to see them.
Self-examination, rightly pursued, will bring great benefits to your Christian life.
Here are some guidelines for pursuing this spiritual discipline:
1. Be intentional.
Set aside a specific time to examine your own life. Find a place where you can be alone. Bring your Bible, a pen and some paper. Expect God to show you things that need to be confessed and changed. You may choose to tell a friend that you have set aside time to examine your life. You might ask them to pray for you, and commit to share what God has shown you.
2. Be specific.
Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see what is going on in your life. Read the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Work through the ten questions that follow, noting what God brings to your mind.
3. Be a believer.
Bring what God shows you to Him in confession as a believer. Pray, believing in the blood of Jesus Christ shed so that the sins you are confessing should be forgiven. Pray, believing in the power of the Holy Spirit enabling you to change. Pray, with confidence that God is gracious and loving towards you and that He is working in your life.
10 Commandments for Examining Your Life
1. First Commandment: God
You shall have no other gods before me.
What disappointments has God allowed in your life? How have these affected your love for Him?
Pain and disappointment often reveal the degree to which we love and desire God’s gifts more than we love and desire Him. Your confession will begin here.
2. Second Commandment: Worship
You shall not make for yourselves an idol.
In what ways would you want God to be different from Who He is?
The desire for God to be different is idolatry. It shows discontent or dissatisfaction with Who He is or what He does. This is sin, and will be part of your confession.
3. Third Commandment: False Religion
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
In what ways do you least reflect the image and likeness of God?
Being a Christian means that you bear the name of Christ. People make judgments about Christ by what they see in those who bear His name. Use this part of your confession to ask God for growth in areas where you need to better reflect His character.
4. Fourth Commandment: Time, Work and Rest
How could you improve what you offer in your working life? How can you better order your life so that you complete your work and preserve time for God and for other relationships God has entrusted to you?
God has set a pattern for your work and rest in the way that He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The pattern of God’s work gives us a template for work, reminding us that God calls us to be productive and to find joy in the work that He has given us to do. Take a careful look at the vigor of your work and the balance of your life.
5. Fifth Commandment: Authority
Honor your father and your mother.
Who has God placed in a position of authority in your life? What are they saying to you? How are you responding?
Father and mother are the first authority figures God places in your life. Difficulty in submitting to others often indicates difficulties in submitting to God’s authority over your life. Examine yourself carefully here.
6. Sixth Commandment: Peace
You shall not murder.
With whom are you most angry and frustrated at this time? Is there someone with whom you are looking to get even? Are you harboring resentment in your heart?
Our Lord traced murder back to its roots in anger (Matthew 5:22). You may not be able to bring healing to every relationship but you can guard your own heart. Confess any bitterness in your heart to God. Ask Him to cleanse it from your soul.
7. Seventh Commandment: Purity
You shall not commit adultery.
In what ways have you given expression to lust?
Jesus traced adultery back to lust in the heart (Matthew 5:28). Lust will destroy your soul if you feed it and allow it to grow in your life. Your thoughts reveal who you are in your heart. Make an honest confession to God as you examine this area of your life.
8. Eighth Commandment: Integrity
You shall not steal.
How can I take less and give more?
God gives. Satan steals. The essence of stealing is that you take what God has trusted to someone else, but do not give what God has entrusted to you. Use this part of your self-examination to look at what you are taking from others and what you are giving back. Look especially at what you are receiving from God and what you are giving back to Him.
9. Ninth Commandment: Truth
You shall not give false testimony.
What has God trusted to me?
In the ninth commandment God calls you to be a person who can be trusted. Make a list of what God has entrusted to you. Take an honest look at how you are being faithful or unfaithful with that trust. Ask God to prepare you for what He will entrust to you in the future.
10. Tenth Commandment: Contentment
You shall not covet.
What are the greatest desires of your heart right now? How do these relate to God’s purpose in your life?
All of our sins flow from the root problem of sin that lies in the human heart. Being a sinner, you desire the wrong things. You don’t find joy or satisfaction in the right things. That is why God gives you His Spirit to change and renew your heart. Use this final part of your self-examination to look beyond sins you have committed to sins that may be growing undetected in your heart. Ask God to cleanse your heart of wrong desires and to keep you from future sins.
Read
Psalm 1
Pray
Jesus, above all other things, You want my heart to match my actions. My heart desires to be a man of high moral value; help me continue to strive to have and maintain a life of integrity.
Reflect
When was the last time I reflected on how well I am living in the eyes of the Lord?
Respond
Examine your life with these ten questions and make adjustments as the Lord leads. Make a point to revisit this list once or twice a year to stay on track.
Being a man of integrity encompasses your whole life—what you want, who you spend your time with, what you say, and what you do. Integrity is like a benchmark for what is best for you. As you strive to live with integrity, don’t forget that it is a journey and a process. Along the way, you will need to surround yourself with men who will hold you accountable for your actions and words. You need to be truthful in all things, including your finances. And you need to check in with yourself periodically to determine if you need a course correction. If you set your sights on living a life that is pleasing to the Lord, you will live a life of integrity. When you live with integrity, you will live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.