In my church Catalyst Church we are working through a series in Proverbs, “How not to make Dumb Decisions” and this week the theme was Self-Awareness. It is never easy pushing into this area of our lives and at first it doesn’t come natural. But in truth lacking self-awareness is a major hindrance to wisdom and to making ground in our lives.
So here are three keys to growing in self awareness.
- Humble yourself. The first thing you will need to work on is humility because self awareness only ever comes through humility. To be humble in the Greek means to ‘make yourself low’. Do something that makes yourself low. It could be as simple as carrying a garbage bag around your estate and picking up rubbish, washing the dishes every day for a week in your workplace or taking a trusted friend out for coffee and asking them if they see any blind spots in your life. All of this brings on humility which opens the door for self awareness in your life.
- Ask Questions: Get into the habit of asking questions of yourself. But when should you do this? Often strong emotions are a good indicator something is up, but remember emotions are great windows but bad leaders. The other category is negative life circumstances eg. You can’t pay the credit card off or you lose a job. These are great times to ask questions like: How did I get here?
Who am I really trying to impress in this situation?
What is the real reason for this emotion?
What part of this do I own?
Keep asking questions, and don’t stop till you get to the deeper reason for what is happening. - Pray and ask God: Psalm 139 says “Search me and know my heart”. God sees the unknown and knows us better than we know ourselves. What is he saying and prompting you about? Sometimes this will take stillness. Turn the podcast, radio, Spotify, TV and play station off and see if God is nudging you.
1 Peter 5:6 tells us that when we humble ourselves, in the right time God will lift us up. Humility and self-awareness bear great fruit in our lives.
Carl Mutzelburg 