Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Introspect

Introspect - To look into or within; to view the inside of.

From The Supernatural Ways of Royalty by Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton, chapter 4, A Royal Flush by Bill Johnson, page 54.

~ I Don't Do Instrospection ~

It took a while, but I finally realized that my best moments (mentalily, emotionally, and spiritually) were when I just did my best, and stayed away from introspection. This was a scary thing for me, because in my mind introspection was almost a rite of passage to my biggest dream - to be a revivalist. After years of struggling with the conflict of personal holiness, I prayed something like this:

Father,

You know that I don't do so well when I look inward, so I'm going to stop. I am relying on You to point out to me the things that I need to see. I promise to stay in Your Word. You said that Your Word was a sword - so please use it to cut me deeply. Expose those things in me that are not pleasing to You. But in doing so, please give me the grace to forsake them. I also promise to come before You daily. Your presence is like a fire. Please burn from me those things that are unpleasing to You. Melt my heart until it become like the heart of Jesus. Be merciful to me in these things. I also promise to stay in fellowship with Your people. You said that iron sharpens iron. I expect You to anoint the "wounds of a friend" to bring me to my senses when I'm being resistant toward You. Please use these tools to shape my life until Jesus alone is seen in me. I believe that You have given me Your heart and mind. By Your grace I am a new creation. I want that reality to be seen that the name of Jesus would be held in highest honor.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amen.

Thank you for sharing this.