Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” – 1 Peter 4:10
The Power of Examining Ourselves
As we heard from our guest speaker, Jay McSwain, this past Sunday, it is good to know how God made us. Understanding our personalities and giftings help us to understand ourselves and to know how we can serve best in the kingdom of God. Examining ourselves also should help us to be more aware of God and give him the glory and praise that he deserves.
This past Sunday Jay gave us five biblical principles to reinforce the importance of us looking inward in order to point our eyes outward and upward:
Examine Ourselves - Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test. 2 Corinthians 13:5 - It is biblical to know who God made us to be and how we can leverage our lives for his purpose for us and our work in the kingdom.
Fearfully and wonderfully made - I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. Psalm 139:14 - He made us all uniquely and wondrously.
Created for a purpose - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 – He created us each for our own individual purpose that only we can fulfill. He made us in a special way to be able to fulfill that purpose. That is part of our gifts given by the Holy Spirit.
We have to be careful when looking inward not to look too much at ourselves so that we don’t turn our focus outward and upward. We lose sight of the importance of looking inward if we get stuck there. The goal is to then be outward and upward focused – on others and God.
Give your life away - But how? - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. Matthew 16:25 – Giving ourselves away in service to God and others brings fulfillment and life when we do it all for his glory and not for ourselves.
God receives the praise - If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. I Peter 4:11 God deserves all the praise and glory for what he has done in our lives. His work in our lives is our story to others – pointing others to him so he gets all the glory.
Looking inward gives us a road map to how we can best serve others and glorify God with our lives. Walking in step with the spirit and pointing others to him in everything we say and do, glorifying him, should be the goal of our lives.
Examine yourself. Look inward and learn about your personality and spiritual gifts. How do you see that God has made you and how can you use your gifts to serve others and glorify him with your life?
If you want to take the PLACE personality and spiritual gifts assessment to learn how God has created you, you can call the office at 817-599-8612 to sign up for the next session.
