The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. Declare this to the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD."
-- Jeremiah 17:9-10 (ESV)
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion:
The knowledge of ourselves consists first in considering what we were when we were created, and what we have since become; and second, in examining for what purpose God created us, and what goal we ought to pursue. No one can truly know himself unless he has first contemplated the face of God, and then descended from that contemplation to look upon himself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together:
He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, although they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews:
There is nothing more grievous than to be ignorant of our own ignorance. The man who thinks he knows what he does not know is doubly blind. But the one who examines his own heart before God -- he begins to see. Do not trust your own judgment about yourself; you are partial to the defendant. Let God be the judge of what you are, and you will find mercy where you expected praise.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ:
We seldom think of our own faults with the same keenness with which we examine those of others. A man may seem good who has nothing to show for it but that he does not rebuke himself. But if you wish to be truly humbled, consider how long you have been in the way of God and how little fruit you have borne. The safest road to self-knowledge is not to probe our own feelings, but to accept correction when it comes and to keep the commandments we have been given.
What have you built this week to avoid a conversation you owe someone?
Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius:
We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. But the man who examines himself honestly is never surprised by what he finds. You say you wish to know yourself. Then stop performing for yourself. The mind that cannot be honest in private will find no peace in public.
St. Clair, MI -- High 82°F, Low 70°F. Mostly overcast. 34% chance of showers. Light winds from the northeast.