At least once or twice we’ve all experienced a time where we felt we’ve been wronged. When you’re a kid you accuse people of cheating at games, being bullies and when you’re older it doesn’t just stop. It becomes a matter of rumors and misconstrued ideas and situations when you become an adult. The end of the story is that we can all point fingers at others but you truly need to point the finger at yourself first. Examine yourself, correct yourself, and hold yourself to the new standard you’ve set in correction.
“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. — Matthew 7:1-5
Examine Yourself
One of the biggest things I’ve learned in life is to check myself before I want to come at someone else’s neck. That is the art of recognizing the plank in my own eye. In the issues of life I alway remind myself as soon as I can to really look at my heart and mind and evaluate my motives with the help of the Holy Ghost. This is actually vital when going in to correct someone because you don’t want to be a hypocrite and be at fault in the area you are judging someone else for. AND when you let someone else judge you make sure they too have dealt with their own planks instead of potentially hurting you. You need to give yourself an honest evaluation. Romans 12:3, “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.” That means not by the measure other people have for you, not opinions of others, but an honest evaluation between you and the Lord. When you do this it’s important that you have a heart that’s been guarded because from your heart flows the issues of life and you don’t want people’s opinions clouding your own examination of your heart posture in your situation. Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Sometimes we have friends and family who call us out on our nonsense and point us to the Lord, sometimes they feed our emotions. If you don’t guard your heart your evaluation can be clouded because it brings you a sense of justice for yourself or excuses for actions instead of being confronted with the word and faith for yourself. One time I was very hurt by some things one of my close friends said about a person I loved. I had to say something but I had to recognize that I had done similar things and had to apologize and confront in one shot. It was humbling but it was an honest evaluation. I didn’t like what they were doing but I was no different for having done the same. Check your heart for your own sake and the sake of those around you!
Correct Yourself
Now that you’ve examined yourself you might find that you need some personal adjusting in your attitude and posture in life. Sometimes this isn’t easy but just like one of my pastors always said, “Bad habits aren’t broken, they’re replaced”. That resonates with me to this day. So for that I always remember that if I don’t like something in my attitude or character I need to make some adjustments that counteract. Correction is like refinement. You’re bettering yourself for the sake of who the Lord is calling you to be and the example you are to others. Something super important to correct is your heart attitude. If your heart attitude isn’t receptive to the correction Holy Ghost is bringing, you really need to get with God and ask the Lord to fix your heart genuinely. Having a hardened heart to correction makes you… stupid. It also allows pride and all these undesirable qualities to creep in and then you’re going to have to go through an even deeper self-examining process with harsher correction potentially. Correction should bring you comfort because when you allow the Lord to correct you and grow you it’s only to ever benefit you. Proverbs 12:1 NKJV says, “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid.” Love correction for yourself and ask the Lord to help you daily. Renew your mind in the word and always allow the Holy Ghost to perfect you as a person. This actually makes it so when you call out the speck in someone’s eye you’ve dealt with your own plank.
Hold Yourself
Now that you’ve examined yourself, made some adjustments, you now hold yourself to your new standards that you’ve created in correction. One of the best ways to hold yourself to a standard is by the measure of the word. Psalm 101 is one of the best scriptures ever where I would go to continually to model life after.
Let this be the standard you hold yourself to. Someone who loves to worship and praise the Lord above all else. This is part of seeking to live a blameless life before the Lord. You holding yourself to this standard will allow people to respect your correction towards them. If you’re living a life where you correct others and never correct yourself and live a life that doesn’t represent righteousness no one will take you seriously. If you’re not paying attention to the services you go to or get up all the time no one will take you seriously either. If you live opposite of what you speak, no one will take you seriously. That’s why you need standards set before you to maintain the adjustments you make. The people in your life play a big part in this area actually. Your friends will either help you live to the standards you’ve set or keep you from it. This is why you search for faithful friends and keep deceivers away from you like the Word says. Choose to live on the road of life that is an example. Be above reproach and surround yourself with people who encourage you to live above reproach and point you to the Lord.
Living Right
Not everyone likes being judged, but we judge as humans. Sometimes we look at the outside and other times we judge by the heart of a person. The Lord looks to the heart and that’s the point of all of this. It’s so we look at our own hearts before confronting someone else’s. The Holy Ghost knows you better than anyone in your life and you need to give Him the room to come work on you and remove that plank so you can be the person who takes the specks out of others. The Holy Ghost won’t force Himself on you though, you need to give Him room. If you make room, He will show up and help you. With that help it’ll enable you to go and help others too and allow people to live right before the Lord. Just remember the way you judge a person is the standard to which you’re judged too. Be kind but be real. Don’t sugarcoat and be upfront. Just remember you can’t point the finger at someone else when you have yet to point at yourself.
