BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing E-magazine March 2019 | Page 8

Self-Examination Questions
To Watch Ourselves
Tim Keller and David Powlison
Think hard. Answer each question
honestly after taking time to ponder. Set
aside a day or several evenings to reflect
on your life and ministry. Wherever
possible give concrete examples of
fruitfulness or failure, of growth or
struggle.
Pray. Pray for wisdom to know God
and yourself better. Pray for wisdom to
serve God more effectively. Pray to know
yourself before the eyes of the God who is
both light and love.
Seek counsel from others. Many of the
questions are difficult to answer about
yourself. This self-evaluation
questionnaire will be most useful when
you combine it with feedback from others.
Ask other leaders, friends, spouse, co-
workers on a ministry team, and so forth.
Are you honest enough?
Do you
demonstrate a willingness to admit your
limits, mistakes, sins and weaknesses?
Are you defensive,
hypersensitive?
guarded,
Do you model that the Christian life is an
open life?
Do you demonstrate that the Christian
life is a work in progress rather than a
completed product?
Do you deal forthrightly with the common
temptations you face: anger, anxiety,
escapism, love of pleasure, self-love,
materialism, perfectionism, and the like?
Are you too open? Do you wear your heart
on your sleeve, indulging and wallowing in
your limits, mistakes, sins and
weaknesses?
Are you morbidly or 'exhibitionistically'
confessional? Or have you learned to
speak of your weaknesses in ways that (1)
point to your confidence in Christ, (2)
genuinely seek help from people who can
help, and (3) edify others?
Are you flexible enough? Do you adapt
faithfully, flexibly and creatively to the
unexpected? Do you value and encourage
the ideas and gifts of others?
Do you insist on your own way, whether
forcefully or through subtle
manipulation?
Do you exemplify confidence in the
sovereign control of God down to the
details of life?
Are you caught up in the various
aggressions and fears produced by a drive
to ensure your own control? Are you
willing to try things experimentally and
then re-evaluate and make changes? Are
you evidently a learner?
Are you too flexible? Do you bend too
much?
Do you blow in the wind of others'
opinions and get overwhelmed by people's
demands and agendas? Do you
compromise, under-assert, seek to please,
fail to push things that need to be pushed?
Do you let people or circumstances control
you rather than the Lord?
Blessing March 2019 | www.bymonline.org | Page 8