Being Honest With Yourself

In I John 1:8 we find these words, “ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If there is anything worse than deception, it is self-deception. John is telling us that the person who denies he has sin is not deceiving others because they know better. He only kids himself, and truly this is bad. Are you really honest with yourself? Why try to kid yourself when you know you cannot deceive others. The poet Dale Wimbrow pined these words,

“When you get what you want in your struggle for life
And the world makes you king for a day
Then go to your mirror and look at yourself
To see what that guy has to say.
For it isn’t your father or mother or wife;
Whose judgment on you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.
He’s the man you must please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end;
And you’ve passed your most difficult, and dangerous test,
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may be like another and “chisel” a plum
And think you’re a wonderful guy;
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum,
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.
You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be the heartaches and tears,
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.”

This is just another way of telling that we need to take a careful self-examination regularly. It says, “Pass judgment on yourself before the other fellow dose. “ we ought to be honest with others, but we must be honest with God and with ourselves. We can deceive the whole world but we cannot lie to God or to ourselves. Granted it is much easier to see faults in someone else than our own imperfections. One of the signs of true greatness is to be able to accept constructive criticism from others. Yet, our greatest and best critic should be ourselves.
The person who does not practice self-examination will soon become a very sever critic of others. Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. How then can we love our neighbor if we don’t love ourselves?
How can we love ourselves if don’t even know who we are? God loves us just as He made us. My question, are you a sinner saved by grace or are you lost and dying in your sins? Only an honest self-examination and a talk with the Lord can answer that?