My last post on this topic was more of an introduction on what was hindering me from living a passionate life in Christ. I recognized my sin and the excuses I was giving for my sin.
The next step was to "dig deep" into my heart. I needed to identify my personal lusts and sinful bents. To learn of my specific temptations, my sinful attitudes and my own ways. I needed to become aware of what is a snare for me and uproot the "real" issues I was sinning in. Here are a few verses on self examination and our natural ways.
"Why should any living mortal, or any man,Offer complaint in view of his sins?Let us examine and probe our ways,And let us return to the LORD. We lift up our heart and hands toward God in heaven"-Lamentations 3:39-41
"The heart is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? "-Jeremiah 17:9
"Examine me, O LORD, and try me;Test my mind and my heart. "-Psalm 26:2
"You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity"- Acts 8:21-23
"because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Justification by Faith ,But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, "-Romans 3:20-23
"Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?"-Romans 6:16
"for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me"-Romans 7:11
"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
"Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest"- Ephesians 2:3
"that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, "-Ephesians 4:22
"For this you know with certainty, that )no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. "- Ephesians 5:5
A couple of other passages on our condition that are good but a bit too long for me to put down here are Psalm 32 and Romans 7:15-25.
So, first I saw my need for Jesus Christ to save me from myself. I confessed him as my Lord and Savior. I recognized that I could not change, a part from Him. I confessed my depression and anxiety as sin and now I realized through His Word the importance of examining my heart more closely and getting very specific in my confession.
Let's see what the Bible has to say on inward heart issues that will manifest themselves in outward ways.
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,"-Galatians 5:16-22
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God"-1 Corinthians 6: 9-10
So, here's a whole list. Immorality,impurity,sensuality,idolatry (this comes in more ways than we think, we idolize much including ourselves), sorcery,enmities (hostility or hatred),strife,jealousy,out bursts of anger, disputes, dissension, faction, envy, drunkenness, carousing. We must not under estimate our sin! Are you asking me where pride is? Pride is at the center of our sin and it will manifest itself through all of our sins. "Pride is substituting our own authority, our plan,our greatness, and our human "goodness' in place of God's authority, His plan and His goodness in our lives." (http://www.believersweb.org/) Here's some more verses on the sin of pride.
"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;Pride and arrogance and the evil way, And the perverted mouth, I hate. "- Proverbs 8:13
"And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornication, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." -Mark 7:20-23
"For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy"- 11 Timothy 3:2
This list could go on. There are a ton of verses on our pride.
All of these sins will manifest themselves out differently in our lives. So, we need to identify these sins and how they are manifested in our life. For instance, one of the manifestations of my heart came out in worry and anxiety, which caused other issues such as fear, lack of sleep, nervousness, my body getting sick and so on. It is easy to see the effects of the sin on my body and yes worry and anxiety are a result of what was really going on in my heart and that was first not trusting in God, "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,Because he trusts in You. "- Isaiah 26:3.
Secondly, I was afraid, " I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears."- Psalm 34:4, "Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down,But a good word makes it glad. "- Proverbs 12:25 I was not trusting in God's sovereign control for my life.
Thirdly, was disbelief. I lacked belief that he desired my good. "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. "-Jeremiah 29:11, "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His loving kindness is everlasting. "-Psalm 118:1. Psalms is packed full of verses on God's goodness towards us!
I had placed my trust in man, which caused fear and my basis of security was placed on man and not God. So,now I identified the issues, lack of trust, disbelief and fear of man. These sins played out visibly as I listed above.
This is self examination. It's not easy and it takes much prayer and thought.
If you are following these posts, I encourage you to take time this week. Pray on what the real heart sins are in your life. Sometimes writing them down so you can see if you are identifying the actual sin, or are you only identifying the outward manifestation of that in your life. Confess them before Him and ask Him to help you be aware of these in your life. Ask Him to change this pattern in your life. In order to do that, you will need to "put on" the right biblical principals and fruit and "put off" the old. Next time we will look into what disciplines need to be patterned in our life that will change us into His image.
Proverbs 4:23-27,
"Watch over your heart with all diligence,For from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth And put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil. "
Have a great week!
