Devotional Thought of the Week:

⁵  Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NLT)

Last night, as we looked at the end the book of II Corinthians in our midweek Bible Study.  The above verse (in read) really stuck out, really became the focus of the study.

To examine ourselves, to look bluntly at our lives, to understand where we’ve failed, is not easy.  Even the way we deal with others hurting us, (or being able to hurt us) can result in our sinning, it can result in our not doing what is right.  Examining ourselves isn’t easy, partially because our very nature will take everything to the worse case scenario.  We again get it wrong, when we think that examining our lives, our souls, is about beating ourselves up, as if somehow the worse we feel about ourselves the more righteous we are.  Or the more we beat ourselves up, the more we’ve atoned for what we’ve done wrong.

It doesn’t work that way, this examining ourselves, this putting our faith to the test.

When I used to teach in the computer information systems introductory course at a community college, one of the question on the final was a pass/fail question.  It was a simple question based on the microsoft office program.  It asked, “what does the F1 button on your keyboard do?”  The answer was simple, it is the HELP button, the button you push when you don’t know what to do, and things aren’t working the way you think they should.  There were many other questions on the test – but that one was critical.  If my students could remember that, everything else they needed to know was readily at hand.  Get that question right – the rest of the test opened up, miss it, and well, you were done.

Life has the same kind of test, according to St Paul.  One question, get it right and life opens up, even our mistakes, our errors, our sins can be dealt with, no, it has been dealt with at Jesus’ crucifixion.

The answer to life’s test?  Simple – Christ is in you!

Paul talks about it again to the church in Colossae:

 ²⁶  This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people. ²⁷  For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Colossians 1:26-27 (NLT)

There’s the secret, there is the test.  Not to be perfect – for we are simultaneously sinners, yet righteous in Christ.  The key to examining ourselves isn’t to beat ourselves up, but to know we need Jesus, and to realize He is here, He is with you, reconciling you to the Father, and then to others.

Christ in you – Christ with you, the very hope we have that the test of life is passed…

Life changes when we know we are welcome in His place… it changes our heart, our mind, our life, our eternity.

The test is that simple…..

Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1558-1560). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.