Make it your regular practice to give your soul a thorough examination to see if there is anything displeasing to God hidden inside you. There are several ways of doing this. As you read the Bible, note anything that displeases God and ask yourself, “Do I see any evidence of this in me?”

Don’t ask vague questions like “Are there any sins in my soul?” Go hunting for specifics. Here is a checklist of some sins that could easily infect you: taking God’s name in vain, crude or vulgar conversation, enjoying unclean jokes, cruelty toward others, especially those who are weak, cynicism, greed, and bitterness. These are as deadly to your soul as cancer is to your body.

Let’s consider pride for a moment. Peter said, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). It doesn’t say that God “ignores” the proud. It says that He “opposes” them. He puts up His hand, and He says, “You aren’t going anywhere.” The proud person thinks he is achieving all kinds of marvellous things. But, actually, he never makes any progress. On the last day there will be little of lasting value to show for his work.

The humble receive grace from God. So, there are going to be some surprises in heaven. Jesus said, “The last will be first, and the first last” (Mat. 20:16). We may well find ourselves wondering why so many people we have never heard of are receiving such rich rewards while others who we thought were front-runners in the kingdom seem to be empty-handed.

If pride or greed or lust or self-pity or bitterness or cynicism are anywhere in us, then they must be identified, confessed, and destroyed. That’s the language of the New Testament: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:5).

Will you take a few moments now and examine your soul using a passage from the Bible like the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20)?

When you reach out to others in ministry, you need to be very careful that you do not end up falling into sin yourself. Jude uses the word “fear.” You need to have a healthy fear lest you fall into the same sins as somebody else you are reaching out to.

The Bible speaks of two kinds of fear. There is an unhealthy kind of fear. You should not be afraid of your enemies or of danger or of those who kill the body, but there is also a healthy kind of fear. You should fear God, and you should fear being stained by the corruption of this world.

This fear of falling into sin arises from a healthy scepticism about yourself. If you have understood the Bible rightly, you will be fully confident in Jesus Christ and deeply sceptical about yourself. Our culture gets this backwards. We are confident in ourselves and doubtful about Christ. That is why we don’t have the fear of falling into sin.

Notice the beautiful balance of Scripture here. In verse 24, Jude says that Jesus “is able to keep you from stumbling.” We have a Saviour who is able to protect us from the devil and to keep us from falling into his snares. But, at the same time, Jude says that we must watch ourselves. We need to be on our guard so that as we live in this world, we do not become conformed to it.

If you don’t watch yourself, don’t expect Jesus to keep you from falling. This truth is like a bicycle with two wheels. You need both, and if you lose either one, you won’t make much progress.

In your daily life are you more conscious of your need to watch yourself or of Jesus’ ability to keep you from falling?

Those who can see that they’ve been burned know what the fire can do, and they reach out to others in the flames. That takes courage. You can’t do ministry without being burned. There is no pain-free ministry.

There is an old story about an African village. One night there was a fire in a wooden building, and the whole family who was sleeping there died, except for a tiny baby boy. As the fire flared up, a stranger rushed in and carried the child to safety, and then vanished into the night.

In the morning, the village elders had to decide what should be done with him. No one knew how the child had escaped, but all felt it would be a privilege to adopt this child whom the gods had smiled on. So, the elders argued with one another about who should adopt the child until a young man stepped forward and insisted that it should be him. When they demanded to know why, he showed them his hands—they were burned.

After Jesus died and rose from the dead, He came to some discouraged believers and showed them His hands and His side. Jesus went into the fire for you. He endured the pains of hell for you. All so that you could be snatched like a burning stick from the fire!

This Jesus, with scars in His hands, comes to those He has rescued and says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Take up your share of the pain and cost of ministry in this fallen world.

Are you trying to do ministry without being burned? What is keeping you from taking up your cross and following the One who went to the cross and laid down His life for you?

If you’re going to be useful in ministry, you need to have a proper understanding of yourself and what God has done for you. Sin has damaged us all, but the Bible makes it clear that sin has done deeper damage to you and to me than staining our lives. It’s changed our nature. Like wood that’s been in a fire, sin burns. It consumes.

The Bible makes it clear that we’re sinners because we sin. It also teaches that we sin because we’re sinners. Behind our wrong actions, there is a damaged nature. Your greatest problem is not your behaviour. It is your nature that gives rise to your behaviour. Sin goes deeper than clothing stains or graffiti; it’s like wood burning.

Here is an appropriate way to describe a born-again, spirit-filled, I-read-my-Bible-every-day kind of Christian: “I am a burned stick” (see Zech. 3:2). That’s not the only thing the Bible says about you, and it certainly is not the most flattering thing, but the Bible makes it clear that you’re a burned stick. You’re a charred piece of wood, and you’ve been snatched from the fire.

One day you will be completely free from all the effects of sin in your life, but that will only happen when Christ comes again. Until then there will always be a charred side to you. When you understand that, it will help you to grow in humility, and it will also help you to grow in compassion and patience with others.

Can you see how you have been charred by your own sin? Thank God for snatching you (or ask Him to snatch you) from the fire. Can you name one person in your life who is being burned by his or her own sin? Bring this person before God right now.

“Those who doubt” would include those whose faith has been undermined and those whose faith has not yet been fully formed. There are many people like this today.

How are we to minister to folks who are confused about their faith? Jude says, “Do this with great compassion.” There’s a big difference between the child who struggles to do what’s right and the child who refuses to do what’s right. And there’s a big difference between the person who struggles to believe and the person who refuses to believe. Wonderfully, God can tell the difference.

Your ministry will be more effective if you can learn to be merciful to those who doubt. Imagine a lady who is widowed and six months later she is still struggling with questions. Her friend is losing patience with her, and so she says, “You should be over this by now. Are you going to trust God or not?”

Now imagine a middle-aged person who knows very little of the Bible but feels that he believes and that he wants to grow. So, he finds his way into a Bible study group, and someone in the group says about his church background, “Oh, dear! You wouldn’t learn very much there.” Don’t forget—God has placed many people around you—some whose faith may be unformed, and some whose faith may have been undermined.

Be compassionate toward those who don’t have the insight that you have. Remember, another person may struggle with a particular frailty that you know nothing about. Don’t expect other people to grasp in a week what you took twenty years to learn!

What “doubting” person is in your life right now?How can you show them mercy?

If you want to live a healthy Christian life, you need to learn to wait. The obvious question is, What does God want us to do while we are waiting?

The answer is that we are to give ourselves to ministry. God calls us to ministry. There are people in need all around us. So, from now until the day when Jesus comes or calls for us, we are to give ourselves to the work of ministry.

Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (John 4:34). You will find that God sustains you in your walk with Him as you give yourself to serving others. Maybe you are already doing this. Serving is part of who you are. If not, the best form of spiritual exercise for you would be to get out and do something that ministers to somebody else.

If your spiritual life is to be healthy, you need to build up your faith, you need to pray, and you need to keep yourself in God’s love. These are the private spiritual disciplines. But a healthy Christian life is more than just Jesus and me.

If all you have is a relationship with Jesus in which you know sweet times of prayer and study, then your Christian life is out of balance. It is not healthy. Spiritual health involves this dimension of ministry in which your life touches the lives of others.

A wise pastor once talked about “irrigating your soul in the joys and sorrows of your people.” Your own soul will be watered as you enter into the joys and sorrows of another person.

Be intentional about building this into your life. Look for ways to bring the blessing of God to others, to lighten somebody else’s load. Let there be someone who, at the end of today, has reason to thank God for you.

How could you be more intentional about ministry to others?

The people who bring menus to your table at a restaurant are called waiters or waitresses. They have no other agenda but to wait on you. They take your order, bring your food, and then make sure everything is all right.

Some people think God exists to wait on us, but the Bible tells us that our calling is to wait on Him. The purpose of our lives is to make ourselves wholly available to Jesus Christ, the guest of honour, who has come into this world.

Maybe you’ve had this experience. You go to a restaurant, and every time the waitress comes to your table, she wants to tell you another episode from her life. That’s inappropriate. The waitress is there to serve the guests. No one would be surprised if her manager soon let her go.

Jesus is the perfect model of waiting on God: He delights in the will of the Father, and He’s ready to do it even when it involves a cross. He says, “Don’t expect a trouble-free life. Expect joy and disappointment, pleasure and pain, unfathomable mysteries, unanswered questions, unresolved problems, and unfinished business. Will you take up your cross in all that and follow me?”

Think of the great disappointments of your life—the heartfelt prayers not yet answered, the great longings of your soul not yet satisfied. You can think of every one of these as invitations to come into God’s gym. He is saying to you, “You want this to be over. I want to make this useful.”

Evaluate your love for God. Are you moving toward or away from Jesus’ perfect model of waiting on God?

When Jude talks about waiting, the obvious question is, Don’t we already have God’s mercy? Yes. Don’t we already have Jesus Christ? Yes. Don’t we already have eternal life? Yes!

If we’ve already received these things, why does Jude tell us to wait? This is teaching us something important: All that you can experience in the Christian life is only a taste of what Christ has in store for you.

The Holy Spirit is a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:22). If you buy a home, the down payment is only a tiny fraction of your mortgage. Everything you experience of God in this life, every good gift from His hand, every blessing, and every pleasure is only a tiny advance on what God has in store for you.

Use the disappointments of life (the waiting) not only to detach yourself from the pursuit of paradise in this world, but to cultivate a healthy anticipation of what God has promised: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

What will life be like when the mercy of Christ brings you to everlasting life? Your body will be redeemed from the curse. Your relationships will be redeemed from the taint of sin. Your soul will be free to serve God as you always wished you could. All creation will be redeemed from the curse. You will be completely at home in the presence of God.

What is one disappointment that has you waiting right now? Pray about how it could help you detach yourself from the pursuit of paradise in this world.