Articles
Questions for Self-Reflection
Someone recently shared an excerpt from Seeing with New Eyes by David Powlison. I don’t know the book or the author, but the excerpt contained a list of 35 questions designed to promote self-reflection. Here are some of them (identified by the number in which they appeared):
5. What do you fear or worry about? What do you not want?
6. What do you feel like doing?
7. What do you think you need? What are your ‘felt needs’?
10. Where do you find refuge, safety, comfort, escape, pleasure, security?
11. What or whom do you trust?
13. Whom must you please? Whose opinion of you counts? From whom do you desire approval and fear rejection? Whose value system do you measure yourself against? In whose eyes are you living? Whose love and approval do you need?
15. On your deathbed, what would sum up your life as worthwhile? What gives your life meaning?
21. What do you see as your rights? What are you entitled to?
25. What do you think about most often? What preoccupies or obsesses you? To what does your mind instinctively drift?
32. How do you live as a slave of the devil?
35. Where do you find your identity?
Powlison writes: “The questions aim to help people identify the ungodly masters that occupy positions of authority in their heart. These questions reveal ‘functional gods,’ what or who actually controls their particular actions, thoughts, emotions, attitudes, memories, and anticipations.”
While these questions may be helpful, there is one particular element that makes or breaks them: They must be answered truthfully. This is not as easy as it sounds, not because of overt dishonesty but because we have a strong bias toward ourselves. All of us to some degree have crafted a worldview that makes sense to us; a persona that reflects that worldview; a set of protective walls – justifications, rationales and explanations – that shield us from the unflattering aspects of our character. Being entirely honest with ourselves is painful, so we tend to create a reality we can live with.
But occasionally something arises that provides a stiff examination of ourselves. The questions above facilitate this, but I’ll leave them for your own consideration. Here are some others that were asked by the most insightful one of all, questions intended to make both the original recipients – and by extension, us – reflect on ourselves (in no particular order):
1. “You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” – Lk 12:20.
2. “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” – Lk 18:8.
3. “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” – Lk 22:48.
4. “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?” – Jn 18:23.
5. “The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” – Mt 21:25.
6. “If David then calls Him, ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” – Mt 22:45.
7. “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their own sons or from strangers?” – Mt 17:25.
8. “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” – Mt 15:3.
9. “Are you also still without understanding?” – Mt 15:16.
10. “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’ …?” – Mt 19:4.
11. “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” – Mt 14:31.
12. “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? … But who do you say that I am?” – Mt 16:13, 15.
13. “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” – Mk 9:33.
14. “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” – Jn 11:26.
15. “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?” – Jn 3:10.
16. “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” – Jn 3:12.
17. “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” – Jn 5:44.
18. “Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?” – Jn 8:46.
19. “Do you want to be made well?” – Jn 5:6.
20. “Do you also want to go away?” – Jn 6:67.
When Jesus came into the world, He encountered a people of antiquity that were only a shell of their former selves. They were largely ignorant of the law; their Messianic hopes were misguided; their leaders were selfish, arrogant and corrupt; their focus was on politics and violence and materialism. Both the words and actions of the Lord were alien to them because of their skewed worldview. So off-base were they that they ridiculed and blasphemed the divine one who was in their midst. They couldn’t recognize true godliness when it was staring them in the face.
Jesus was calling them – and us – back to real faith, Biblical knowledge, honest motives, spiritual priorities and psychological wellness. These things exist on God’s terms, and we must decide to enter His world and see things from His point of view in order to recognize our true selves.
