“Examine and test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it…”
2 Corinthians 13:5a AMPC
There is a popular concept in the human resource field called employee appraisal, where employees of an organization are reviewed based on their work for some time. The purpose of this exercise is to see where things have been done well and where they can be done better.
In our anchor scripture, Paul was calling on the church in Corinth to examine themselves to see if they were bearing proper fruits in alignment with their confession of salvation. The end of this year is fast approaching and as we reflect and carry out appraisals in other aspects of our lives, we should also endeavor to do the same in our spiritual walk.
Just as an employee appraisal form has segments, we would be looking at two broad ways to assess the state of our hearts in this period.
Paul speaking to the church in Colossae says,
“For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus [the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness] and of the love which you [have and show] for all the saints (God’s consecrated ones),”
Colossians 1:4 (AMPC)
For this church and by extension, us, their faith in God and love for the saints were proof of the fact that their hearts were in the right place with God.
One sure way to assess our faith in God is our attitude to spiritual devotion. Do you still believe you can’t do life without God, or have you slowly turned your trust to your job, connections, and money? Did you start the year on a high spiritual note, reading your bible and praying every day but due to the demands of life, your consistency has reduced over the months? Did you apply lessons learned from the word of God or just read them to fulfil righteousness?
The other half of the coin is our love for the saints. How has your love walk this year been? Is there anyone you’re struggling to forgive? Did you grow in generosity this year? How did you do in evangelism this year? Did love drive you to your knees praying for lost souls and to the streets preaching to them?
An honest appraisal of these two aspects of our Christian walk would give us a good picture of our heart status. If you’re not doing very well, there’s no condemnation, you can do much better. If you are doing well, that’s good, but there’s, even more, to be done. (Romans 8:1, Philippians 3:13-14)
Dear believer, let us not be weary in doing well (Galatians 6:9). Every new day, week, month, and year is a fresh opportunity to do better and be all that God has called us to be, don’t waste it!
Do this: Take some time today to reflect on the past year, thank God for the times of spiritual growth, and write down sustainable plans to keep growing in the coming year.
Bible Reading Plan:
John 21:15-25, Revelation 22, Job 42, Malachi 1-4