People are like cars -- they need their brakes checked.

I don't know about your state, but Virginia has this yearly State Safety Inspection process. You drive your car over to your local gas station and they perform a series of inspections upon the "regular" components of the car. This includes lights, turn signals, brakes, tires, wind-shield wipers, horn, and so on. Nothing real fancy. Just a check of the normal stuff that makes a car go - and stop. The assumption is that you will take care of major problems to keep the car running properly but might have a habit of ignoring some of the routine stuff.

As I sat there drinking a soda waiting to be relieved of  $15 for this service, I got to thinking that we humans are a lot like the cars. When we really and suddenly mess up, the believer is usually quick to recognize the fact and immediately confess our sins and seek forgiveness.

On the other hand, when we ignore the routine of our daily lives, we loose our safety net. When we are staying close to God, our spirit and the Holy Spirit stay in close contact with each other. This process impress upon our conscious a pattern of proper actions, so that when we stray from this pattern, our conscious quickly warns us of the error. If we stop to inspect the situation, our spirit will point out the sinful nature of the action providiing us with an opportunity to correct the situation, both in terms of our earthly actions and in terms of confession to God to stay righteous with Him.

Except, we fail to properly inspect the situation. Let's say we become attracted to someone else. If we do not inspect our actions on a continual basis, as the relationship grows we stray farther and farther from God's proper path. The ultimate result is fornication if we are single and adultery if we are married. You see, by failing to maintain those safety inspections, each step along that path hardened our hearts, so that by the time we reached the "big sin" our hearts were past the point of caring abour our relationship to God.

I used sexual sins as an example, because it is easy to understand and if you think it out, easy to see a series of encounters where the intimacy grows and the heart hardens. The sin can be anything, however. It does not need to be sexual. We commit big sins, because we fail to stop ourselves on a series of small sins. A little lie becomes a little bigger lie, which becomes an even bigger lie. It just keeps growing.

Paul writes:

2 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV)
⁵ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

See, we are suppose to perform periodic safety inspections. Check youself out. Verify that all of your routines are acceptable to God. If they aren't, then repair them. That mechanic would change a broken light bulb or replace a bad wind-shield wiper in order for your car to pass the inspection. You need to do the same. Replace those improper actions with ones that fall into line with God's will.

The burden of the examination is upon each of us. It is not someone else's responsibility to point out your faults. The safety inspection is your task.

Do one today. Do one next Wednesday, then the Wednesday after that, etc. It will make you a better Christian.

Jim A