Examine

 Examine

June 17, 2025

Galatians 6:3-4

3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reasonfor boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.

1 Corinthians 11:28-29

28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats anddrinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

Yesterday we talked about a clean heart. Today I want to talk about clean teeth. After I wrote yesterday’s blog, I went to the dentist. That was a good life lesson on what a thorough examination entails. Fist they lay you back and shine a bright spotlight in your face. You can’t really move or see anything, and then they break out the scary, sharp instruments and proceed to poke, prod and scrape. This time they even used the laser scalpel to cut away some offending matter. Then they may want to take an X-ray to look beneath the surface at things that can’t even be seen with the naked eye.  Now thats a thorough examination!

So are you willing to undergo such a though exam of your heart? In Galatians, Paul talks about how easy it is to deceive yourself, but if you want to be able to serve the Lord and have something genuine to boast about, you need examine yourself. The Lord can use anyone, but first He must examine you and prepare your heart. Humility is required, boasting of your own self worth is deception if you don’t first examine your own work to see if it worthy or not. Once you allow the Lord to examine your heart and scrape away the toxic buildup from the world, then He can use you to do things that you can truly boast about. You can boast in the Lord and the great things that He has done as long as you realize that it His gift and working and that we, in ourselves, can do nothing.