| “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” |
| —Lamentations 3:40 |
Calendar milestones make good times to re-evaluate our love for God, our progress toward holiness, and our obedience to Christ and His Word. To get the New Year started right, we ought to perform a spiritual self-examination, or spiritual tune-up.
Having worked with musical instruments all my life, I recognize the importance of the “tune-up.” Every year or so, the piano needs a good going over to make sure every note perfectly sounds in relation to every other note. It’s also important to note that pianos and pipe organs go in and out of tune based on the temperature of the room in which they are housed. This is much like our spiritual lives, which can sometimes go in and out of tune in relation to the culture that surrounds us.
Those instruments that play with other instruments need tuning adjustments more often. Every good band and orchestra requires its players to “tune” before beginning each rehearsal and every performance. This means each musician must carefully listen with a concentrated focus, in order to modify the sound of each note in relationship to the notes played by the other instruments.
New Year’s makes a great time to spiritually “tune-up” our lives. As we take time to get alone and wait before God, it will necessitate our listening carefully in silence and a keen focusing of our minds and hearts before Him.
First of all, the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6, suggests:
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.
Secondly, Paul suggests self-examination before we partake of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. In other words, before we “make spiritual music” alongside our brothers and sisters in the faith, Paul instructs us in 1 Corinthians 11:28:
A man (or woman) ought to examine himself (or herself) before he (or she) eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself (or herself).1
The great Methodist founder, John Wesley, believed in the concept of self-examination. In fact, he believed in this important activity so much so that he wrote a liturgical service in which he provided God’s people an opportunity to renew their covenants with God.
Wesley records in his Journal 2 the following at the end of this service in 1755:
…all the people stood up, in testimony of assent, to the number of about 1,800 persons.
The Journal entry closes with:
…such a night I scarce ever saw before.
The success of this liturgical service of self-examination resulted in the publication of a “Covenant Service” written in 1780, and used for many years on New Year’s Eve. This solemn act of commitment helped Christians of that generation begin each year with a “fresh slate” before the Lord.
Let’s purpose to assure that this New Year will offer us a time of reflection, renewal, and rededication for the days ahead. Let’s ask God to “tune” our hearts in relation to His heart and in harmony with those other Christians with whom we worship.
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| 1 I’ve inserted the feminine pronouns parenthetically in recognition of the common pracice of the New Testatment Greek language of using male pronouns in general descriptions that apply to all human beings, namely “male-men” and “female-men.” |
| 2 Bible, Ken, compiler, “John Wesley’s Covenant Service” in Wesley Hymns. Kansas City: Lillenas Publishing Co., 1982. Pp. A-2, A-3. |
