The call to examine our hearts.

Why do we look to ourselves?

It’s that time again, the end of New Year’s resolutions, and now real life can begin. Each December, we get excited because we are sure the coming year will be different.

We vow that we will stop doing this and start doing that, and the secret to success will finally be ours.

Doesn’t that sound familiar?

Why do we keep going around the same mountain, thinking that by doing the same thing (finding the latest trend or promised success plans), we will end up with a different result?

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How we look to Jesus

The Bible has an answer to this question in Hebrews 12:1&2. The author to the Hebrews previously, in chapter 11, laid out a beautiful example of saints who had demonstrated lives of faith. Now in chapter 12:1, he says

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1&2

The most famous phrase in this passage is “looking to Jesus, the founder and, the perfecter of our faith.” but have we considered that “looking to Jesus” is more than a feel-good catchphrase? It is the means (the agent in our ability ) for living a life of faith.

Looking to Jesus was how the saints in chapter 11 could walk by faith. They walked in the light of what they knew about Jesus.

As Paul put it in Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

Paul explains that we are not to allow this world’s system to influence how we live; we must actively renew our minds daily in the truth of Scripture. This also means that we are not to look to our understanding (See Proverbs 5&6, Matthew 16:24, Romans 13:14.) Renewing our thoughts, emotions, and actions in God’s Word is what compels us to look to Jesus.

Why we don’t look to Jesus

The biggest challenge to our ability to renew our minds is sin.

Jeremiah 17:9 says

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

and Romans 3:10–18

10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:10–18

Now before you sink into depression from the weight of these verses, let me encourage you. The weight of sin, if you are a believer, has been lifted (See Colossians 1:21, Galatians 5:1, and Romans 6:1–6). This is where the means of looking to Jesus changes everything.

The phrase “let us” is not accomplished by our self-effort or “willpower”; instead, it is completed by looking to Jesus.

So now the question remains how do we do “let us”? The answer lies with what the Bible says calls “examine ourselves” or, as I often think of it, “examining the heart.” (See Psalm 119:59, Lamentations 3:40, and 2 Corinthians 3:18)

In the next part, we will explore the details of what it means to examine our hearts.