Do you hate being evaluated? You know, that time of year when your boss or supervisor comes in with a checklist and basically says whether you have succeeded or failed at each item. Or maybe it’s a job interview and you are trying to list all your “strengths and weaknesses.” In a premarital counseling series we use, they refer to weaknesses as “growth areas.” As we enter our third week of prayer, we will focus on ourselves and our growth areas. How can you be a better servant of God? What areas of service can you do a better job in? How can those around you be better loved? These questions may be hard to answer, though we would all agree we each have areas we could grow in. It’s time for an evaluation of ourselves. To help us out, here are a few scriptures to give us some things to think about.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
1Corinthians 14:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Depending on how you break these up or categorize these two passages, there are around two dozen qualities we should have. Evaluate your spiritual walk and pick out seven areas you may struggle with and pray each day this next week for one of them. This is an evaluation we should not dread because we are safe in the love of our Father. As it has been quoted: “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.”
Striving to be like Jesus,
Randy