Unprofitable Self-Examination

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

Unprofitable Self-Examination

THERE is a proper way in which one may examine himself to see whether he be in the faith, but there is also an unhealthy self-examination which leads to doubt and discouragement. This has been well stated in the following quotation:—

Many earnest souls suffer and brood over their obvious failure to attain to the high standard of character that they long for, and in that very suffering and brooding they defeat God’s plan for their spiritual development. No one ever helped others by thinking chiefly about himself. Many a one makes the mistake of centering his attention so persistently on himself and his failure to be what he thinks he ought to be, that he is incapacitated for serving his fellows as God wants him to do. We can never be what we want to be, nor what God would have us be, until we stop thinking about what we are, and, having committed ourselves to the Saviour, in his strength do his will by bringing love and cheer and the gospel daily to those near us.

There is a truth here stated which ought not to be overlooked. It is by beholding that we become changed into the same image. One who beholds himself instead of “looking unto Jesus” is not likely to rise above his own failures. One who fully realizes his own imperfections and desires to attain to something better, should follow the example of the apostle Paul: “Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” This is the true philosophy of Christian attainment.