A Practical Guide to Searching Your Heart

To search your heart closely, you must engage in a faithful, daily review of your actions and motives while prayerfully seeking the illumination of the Holy Spirit12MR 147.3+2. This work of self-examination is necessary to overcome character defects and to advance in true sanctificationARSH June 20, 1865, page 17.10.

Practical Steps for Heart Searching

• Prioritize Time for Investigation: Set aside specific hours for prayer and deep heart searching, ensuring that preparation for eating and dressing remains a secondary matter8MR 375.2+2.

• Study the Divine Standard: Use the Bible as your great moral mirror to measure your attainments against the standard of holinessRH May 1, 1888, par. 11.

• Seek the Holy Spirit's Aid: Because the heart is deceitful above all things, you must ask the Holy Spirit to act as the searcher of your thoughts and purposes12MR 147.3+2.

• Conduct a Daily Review: At the close of each day, deliberately scrutinize every circumstance to see whether your conscience approves or condemns your conductGW 275.2.

• Resolve Conflicts Before Worship: Before approaching the Sabbath or holy convocations, clear your heart through confession and make everything right with others11LtMs, Ms 62, 1896, par. 42+1.

Questions for Self-Examination

You should deal truly with your own soul by asking yourself these heart-searching questions2T 81.1+1:

• Concerning Your Spiritual State:

• Am I a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God2T 144.2?

• Is my life hid with Christ in God, or am I still clinging to the world2T 144.2?

• Have I been converted and transformed by the renewing of my mind, or am I merely a professor of the truthFW 19.1+2?

• Am I as zealous for the salvation of souls as I am for my own worldly schemesARSH November 7, 1854, page 104.6?

• Concerning Your Motives and Character:

• Are my deeds of benevolence prompted by a sincere heart or by wrong motivesGW 275.2?

• Have I allowed pride or self-esteem to blind me to my own deficienciesCSW 96.2+1?

• Am I watching for the faults of my brethren when I should be searching my own heart4T 39.2?

• Does the truth I profess regulate the impulses of my heart and the motive power of my actionsRH May 1, 1888, par. 11?

• Concerning Your Daily Conduct:

• Have I devoted the moments of this day to pleasing myself, or have I sought to make others happyMYP 122.1?

• Have I brought my religion into my home and revealed the grace of Christ to my familyMYP 122.1?

• Have I kept my lips from evil and my tongue from speaking guile or dwelling on the faults of othersMYP 122.1+1?

• In my dealings with others, have I followed the rule to do unto them as I would have them do unto me20MR 284.2?

By persevering in this work, you will realize the necessity of overcoming your imperfections and progressing in holinessARSH June 20, 1865, page 17.10. Remember that the work of character-building is a lifelong effort that decides your eternal destinySpTEd 73.1+2.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts" Psalm 139:23. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" 2 Corinthians 13:5.