The CEO of a major firm once confessed to me, “I have a banker to keep me solvent, a lawyer to keep me legal, and a doctor to keep me healthy, but I have no one to help assess my spiritual condition.”
I had never thought about such a thing: a “spiritual audit.” Since that time, I have accumulated 12 questions that I regularly ask myself.
Evaluate each statement as True, Somewhat True, Not True, or I Need Help
- Am I content with who I am becoming? Every day I get one day closer to who I will ultimately be. Am I satisfied with who I will be?
- Am I becoming less religious and more spiritual? The Pharisees were religious; Christ is spiritual. After years of involvement in organized religion, I often feel the shallowness of the experience, the restriction of the rules, and hunger for something truly spiritual in my relation with Christ.
- Does my family recognize the authenticity of my spirituality? They see me whole. I must believe that if I am growing spiritually, my family will recognize it.
- Do I have a flow-through philosophy? Scripture says, “He that believeth in me, out of his innermost parts will flow rivers of living water.” The freshness is in the flow. If I have been blessed with leadership, that blessing should flow out of my life.
- Do I have a quiet center to my life? Every Christian should have a quiet center that nothing can disturb. François Fenelon said, “Peace is what God wants for you no matter what is happening.”
- Have I defined my unique ministry? Do I know what I can do effectively? The need is always bigger than any person can satisfy, and so my call is simply to handle the part of the need that is mine to do.
- Is my prayer life improving? I cannot evaluate when I am a man of prayer, but I can perceive progress if I am making it. One test is: Do my decisions have prayer as an integral part?
- Have I maintained genuine awe of God? Awe overwhelms; it inspires worship.
- Is my humility genuine? Nothing is so arrogant as false humility. Two definitions of humility I like: “Humility is accepting your strength with gratitude,” and “Humility is not denying the power that you have but admitting the power comes through you, not from you.”
- Is my spiritual feeding the right diet for me? I’ve stopped calling my reading time “a devotion.” I call it “a feeding time” for my soul.
- Is obedience in small matters built into my reflexes? Do I try to bargain with God or rationalize with him? Obedience largely determines my relation with Christ following new birth.
- Do I have joy? Joy is promised to me. If the relation to Christ is right, I will have it.
