Daily Journal: 18 December

Know Yourself

The greatest handicap to not changing is not admitting your handicap.

Know yourself well enough to admit to where you fail to believe what you profess. That’s the first and best step toward believing, if in fact, you want to believe.

Know yourself well enough to admit where you fall short.

Peter denied that he would deny Jesus, refusing to recognise the weakness that was within himself. He wanted to believe what he was saying. In truth, Mark 14:11 says that all the other disciples said the same, yet they all scattered when Jesus was arrested.

We can say something as adamantly as we know how, but if we function from our soul, our soul will always let us down.

Learning to surrender our soul to the Spirit of God is the only way we will not fail in the belief that we profess. It’s not by our own power or conviction that we ultimately do what we profess, it is by the conviction of the Holy Spirit within us.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NET)

Trust [lean on; rely on for help or protection; have confidence] in the Lord with all your heart [functions as mind, emotions and will], and do not rely [relying on one’s own understanding is compared to leaning on something that is unreliable for support] on your own understanding [functions in relative ignorance unless supplemented by divine wisdom]. Acknowledge him [his authority and characteristics] in all your ways, and he will make your paths straight [free from obstacles].

Admitting to our own disbelief, our own unwillingness to surrender fully, means, if we want to believe, we need to ask God to give us the ability. That is true trust. That is true resolve. He never fails to meet us there because He wants us to be successful, living in His completeness.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (GNT)

The Lord says, “The wise should not boast of their wisdom, nor the strong of their strength, nor the rich of their wealth. If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the Lord, have spoken.”