15Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.16Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
I think it does us well to devote attention to our spiritual lives, to be self-aware - recognizing first and foremost who we are in Christ - that is the standard. From that, we can evaluate ourselves to see areas in which we need to grow. We can test our hearts and examine our motives. We can ask the Lord, as David did, to search our hearts, to identify ways that are not pleasing to Him, and to be led in the everlasting way. We can confess the sins we have committed, and we can recognize those trouble spots where we need to exercise discipline in order to grow. In partnership with the Holy Spirit, we allow God and His Word to shape us, essentially, to get us in better spiritual shape.
+++++
I believe that spiritual self-evaluation, a sense of connectedness about what is going on in our hearts and minds, can be so valuable as we seek to grow in the Lord. 2nd Corinthians 13 explores this concept:4For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.5Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.6But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
The Daily Mail headline asks, "Is this the most connected human on the planet?" Well, there is certainly a case to be made for a 45-year-old Denver man named Chris Dancy, who uses a range of sensors, devices, services and applications to gather real-time data about his body and the environment around him. In fact, it's reported that he uses some 700 different information-gathering systems.
These include a Pebble smartwatch, Google Glass, a BodyMedia armband and Blue heart rate monitor.
He collects data about what he eats, when he sleeps, how he uses his email, his health, travel plans and photos and even his dogs' levels of activity.
Collecting data about his eating habits and fitness enabled Dancy to lose 100 pounds.
His home includes a smart lighting system and a mattress cover that collects data in his sleep.
He has been monitoring and collecting his personal data for five years, adding two or three systems every week.
He refers to his connectivity as, "It’s body and mind hacking. Just like we hack computers and any type of data, your body and your mind is the greatest information system humanity has ever known and understanding it makes it hackable."
In a video, Dancy pronounced the internet dead and said: "The 'innernet' - the information of you - is the future."
Chris Dancy is devoted to tracking his every move, and you have to admire his dedication and drive. Taking it into the spiritual realm, I think some "tracking" could be especially helpful to us as we seek to stay in sync with the Lord. The first thing I would mention is that self-evaluation can lead to self-discipline, or self-control, a fruit of the Spirit. If we do examine our sinful tendencies and allow the Holy Spirit to convict and correct us, we can have a more rewarding Christian experience. We can admit that we do have an inner tracking system available to us through the Holy Spirit. We can rely on Him to lead us, to empower us, and to help us learn more about who we are in Christ.
We can be challenged to find ways to actually track our tendencies, temptations, desires, and patterns. This can be done in a number of ways. I would suggest prayer, through gain a sense of our connection to God. Also, through allowing God's Word to address issues in our lives. Perhaps through journaling - writing down our thoughts and insights about God and His ways as He speaks to us. Also, through community - living as an accountable member of the body of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment