Self-assessment is a difficult thing to do, yet it is one of the most essential things in life if we want to make progress – physically and spiritually. The difficulty stems from the fact that our personal prejudices will often affect any attempt we make at putting ourselves on the scale. In most cases, it is either we come up with a deflated or over inflated verdict, either of which can be unhelpful at the long run. It is what we can rightly describe as a state of altered reality. Israel suffered from this situation in the wilderness. They murmured at every turn of the way. They compared life to what obtained in Egypt, and surprisingly they came up with the verdict that they were better off then than in the wilderness. For all we know, that conclusion was wrong. In Egypt, they sweated for everything they ate and drank; but in the wilderness God rained down manna and gave drink from the rock. They were also slaves in Egypt, but are now free. They forgot all these and thought that they were receiving the raw deal of life. Here is the point: whenever you are having a deflated view of your life, you become blind to all the wonderful things happening to you.
“The only way to have a healthy assessment of our lives is to do it in the light of Scripture and by the help of the Holy Spirit.”
The opposite of that is an exaggerated view of life. This is what Paul warned the people to be wary of. To think more highly of oneself is a slippery path to pride which invariably ends in a fall. A clear case that comes to mind is the story of Nebuchadnezzar. He had become a mighty emperor over the entire world, but that at the behest of God. He was a divine instrument that God employed to fulfill divine agenda at that time. He got it all wrong when he declared that he built Babylon by the might of his power and exclusively for his personal glory. He lost it all! The only way to have a healthy assessment of our lives is to do it in the light of Scripture and by the help of the Holy Spirit.