Those who excel must chase out the little problems that hold them back!
When we hit difficulties in life, we are told to get a check up. Anyone who wants to join a team, needs to be tested, trained and placed accordingly.
Tests embarass us by revealing our weaknesses. However, if we can humbly acknowledge our weaknesses, then we can be trained to overcome them. Would you take a stress test to find a weak heart and not exercise more to make yourself stronger?! The apostle considers this even more important for our spiritual lives.
"Test yourselves [to see] if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?"
(2 Corinthians 13:5)
For some, these tests show no hope. We will not even make it to the end of the race! For these, we have spoken how to find God and His power to help us live rightly. But for the majority, there is no doubt that the weak spots are not fatal in kind and can be overcome with good training. If we neglect to overcome them, then they will continue to burden us down into a very poor showing.
Where do we take the test?
These tests are difficult to take. The more objective, the better. But frankly, there is no one who understands our heart but God. If we are interested in knowing and have humbled ourselves before God, then there is a good chance God will help us in this task. He is very concerned that we do well in the race.
As we begin, why don't you memorize Philippians 1:6.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Developing our personal life charts can be very helpful in analyzing past patterns. They can also be very humbling!
There are two kinds of patterns that we need to pay attention to.
- Long term patterns
- Short term patterns
The long term patterns are similar ups and downs over the years. We get into ruts and swings of life. They are often repeatable. Long term patterns reveal habits and thinking.
The short term patterns are acute crises leading to big changes. They often show up on the long term charts. After analyzing your life long patterns, then focus on a few crises to see what initiates these crisis. We have seen some of these advantages on the confession charts.
Usually the victories proceed the upcurve and the defeats in the low periods. Each of us have failures and victories. The failures could be worst, the victories better. Our job here is to review them a bit to make sure that we have understood what we can from them. Perhaps the most critical decisions are those that we make when we have just won or lost. They become embedded in us sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. These experiences have become our trainers of sort. We have learned some things, but more than often they were not fully used.
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Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalms 139:23-24).
If we do not understand our past, then we will continue to be ignorant of our faults and use them to stain our future.
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