Before I start sharing, let me just ask you guys, how often you guys evaluate and examine yourself? Well for me honestly I don’t really examine myself, instead most of the time I look at others and start to feel disgusted with their action and feel sad for them, but what about myself? I don’t even look in the mirror and see what I look like because I am just too busy looking at others.

While i was doing my quite time, something really struck my mind and it’s as if God is warning me and asking me to re-examine my motive in everything I do. Would like to share the passage that I read it is from Matthew 23, but I will just extract those verses that caught my attention.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

“Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

These few verses really struck my heart and mind, I start to question myself. What’s my motive in everything I do? Who am I living for? Am I doing everything just for men to see or just is it for God’s sake? Am I doing things for my own glory and pride or is it for God? Am I attending morning worship and church just to show my present? Am I trying to live my life up to people’s expectation ? Is it all about of me or God?

To those whom I had share the gospel with, what do they see in me? Am walking the talk, am I practicing what I preach? Am I living a good testimony ? Or being a hypocrite in their eye?

You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.


The above verse makes me wonder even deeper, where have I lead them to? Did I brought them to the right path and help them be a better person or did I just made them worst and brought them condemnation? It’s sad when I see that the latter is happening. Why aren’t I helping while I see it? Why am I still letting it happen? What can I really do about it? What kind of influence have I brought them to? Deep inside It really discourages me from reaching out because I don’t want to see the same thing happen again. Why don’t I have the courage to stand up for righteousness? Why must I hide and avoid it? Am I afraid of being rejected ? Is being accepted more important than obeying God?

First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

These 2 verses makes me question myself even deeper. Have i truly been transformed by the power of the cross or am I just trying so hard to be someone better on the outer part with my own strength? Do I “try” to be good because “I am a Christian” or do I really WANT to be good and repent? Am I putting on a mask or am I just being myself? Am I more afraid on how people judge me or more afraid of how the Almighty God judge me? Who do i fear most, man or God?


It definitely is a scary thing to ask myself those question, but I know that it’s time to face the truth and find out the answer for all the question instead of avoiding it, and if any of the answer isn’t pleasing to God then it’s time for me to act instead of just sitting there. It’s time for me to allowed God to work in me and change me, it’s time for me to stop depending on my instinct and start obeying what God wants me to do.

Matthew 7:3, Jesus said “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?.I thank God for giving me a wake up call in my quiet time and it’s time for me to refocus on myself instead of others. No more fooling around with God and time to get serious.

Luke 16:15

He said to them, “You are the ones who JUSTIFY yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is DETESTABLE in God’s sight.”

Proverbs 16:2

All a man’s ways seem INNOCENT to him,
but MOTIVES are weighed by the LORD.

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

clean-heart

Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts

From the inside out