The Value of Examination

UV 761/10,000 The Value of Examination “Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing: I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.” Psalm 17 v 3 As Socrates said, “ An unexamined life is not worth living”. But, mere introspection or self-examination is not adequate. Self-examination is not objective and can often be biased for who does not love to look good in the eyes of others. Too much introspection unaided by the Spirit of God has a depressing and guilt-producing effect on the human psyche. Many counsellors and psychologists sink under the weight of this contagion effect. Instead, the Holy Spirit needs to be invited to examine us daily, frequently and regularly. At the end of every day, we can submit ourselves in a deliberate exercise and invite the Holy Spirit to examine our spirits, minds and bodies, too. He is able to scan our innermost being and tell us if anything is amiss. He will examine our consciences, our deeds and words of the day and tell us where we have gone wrong or where we can do better the next day. He will examine our faith, see the gaps and supply what is lacking in our faith. As an examiner of gold, checks it primarily for its purity, He will check our faith whether it is pure and free from blame. He will then decide whether the best cure for that level or type of impurity would be mother’s soap or refiner’s fire. The yardstick the Holy Spirit uses to measure or examine us is the Word. He will examine our heart and check if the love He finds in it is patient, kind, forgiving, not proud or vain, hopeful, humble and wise. Adam and Eve hid from the Lord. They failed the examination and feared the probing eyes of God. We fear God and therefore, invite Him to examine us. The Lord will examine whether we make an effort during the course of the day to remember and acknowledge His presence, recall His Word and take active steps to obey or align our steps with His Word. He does not examine us with a view to prove us wrong, to find fault with us or to confirm that we have failed. He examines us to give us grace to succeed. We can pray asking the Lord to examine our minds. Very few people avail the psychiatric examination and healing that the Lord can give us free of cost as often as we ask Him. A senior civil servant was telling me the other day that his mental health may not be sound at times and he could well do with a check up. We need to ask the Lord to examine our marriage and our relationships too. We can even ask the Lord to examine our cardio-vascular system and remove the blocks, if any. In recent times, three people known to me went through cardiac procedures. In my morning prayer walk, I told the Lord, “ You know if there are any blocks in my system.” The Lord revealed later that I too had some developing block but as I prayed and moved my hand in faith over my heart, asking for the removal of the blocks, it was removed. Indeed, prevention is better than cure and prayer is better than prevention and cure. This is what I call the power of prophylactic prayer. It saves us a lot of anxiety, pain, suffering and the bills. On our part, we must resolve to muzzle our mouths and not let it sin. Often, we tend to dam up the rivers of life-giving water inside us and allow the torrents of anger, bitterness and negativity to well up and flow out of us. We need to offer our tongues for examination to the Holy Spirit every day and often as He will cleanse it with tongues of fire. If we are able to bring this tiny rudder called the tongue under our control, we can exercise self control over all other parts of our being. This tiny rudder will determine whether we are on course or off the track that the Lord had intended that we take in our journey. This is part of our commitment to be perfect because Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father are perfect and a person who controls His tongue is deemed by the Trinity to be perfect. The way we use it will indicate whether the kingdom or rule of God is prevailing in all of our lives. We measure and deliberate over every word that we speak to ensure that it is wholesome, healthy, timely and useful to the hearer. Our words fall in line with the Word of God as an evidence that we live and walk according to the revealed will of God. Prateep V Philip