Know thyself!

Did you ever have friends back then in school who never seemed to study but always passed their exams? 

I did. I preferred to study during the day, but my friends preferred night-time. 

My mistake during the day, was playing with these friends instead of studying. At night, I would be tired and fast asleep, while my friends studied.

These friends identified their best reading and playing times and maximised them. I on the other hand, did the complete opposite! The consequence was I didn’t performed as good as I could, until I changed my pattern of behaviour.

I find that this refusal to know our strengths and weaknesses causes some of us to walk or even dance into some avoidable temptations. We sometimes reason that just because Person A was able to avoid it, we can also. We easily forget that what could be food for someone may be poison for another.

Jesus urges us in Matthew 18:9 to pluck out our eye if it causes us to sin. And in Proverbs 6:27, we are asked, “Can a man scoop fire into his lap and not get burnt?”

In both cases, we have to first identify the ‘eye’ and ‘fire’ (weakness) that has the capacity to ruin us. Then and only then can we remove it or avoid it.

What is fire to you? Look inward, search your heart, take an inventory of your habitual sins and notice the pattern. What starts the vicious cycle? Once you can identify the trigger, you will know how to deny it opportunities from developing into full -fledged sin and regret.

Its not easy or pleasant to carry out this exercise, but only the truth will set us free. I encourage you to read up this article about people who failed to identify their weaknesses and how it cost them their destinies.

May God give us wisdom to live the beautiful lives He planned for us. Amen and amen!

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Image1 courtesy:http://d3e4298tco5ouh.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Examine0.jpg

Image2 courtesy:https://users.bible.org/sites/users.bible.org/files/u21652/playing-with-fire.jpeg