Examining our hearts before one another

From today's lenten devotion: "Resentment is probably one of the most pervasive evils of our time. It's something that is very real, very pernicious, and very, very destructive. You and I are not free from it... Resentment is precisely the pitfall of the faithful, obedient, hardworking people who do the right thing. That's why it's important to talk about it. In so many ways you are a good person and you try to do the right thing... but each of you might examine how your life and relationships are wounded because of resentment buried in your heart."

I don't want to take away from the specific application to resentment and it's insidious affects on us. It is, in fact, something that "you and I are not free from..." But, what struck me the most was the part about examining our hearts. We have to do this regularly. See, we can do many good things, but in the course of it, harbor beliefs about something that are neither accurate or healthy. But, I think we have to examine our hearts before one another for true perspective. How will we, without fail, be able to realize our false beliefs on our own. If we have believed that a particular belief or action was o.k., then how can we determine that it is not if it is not specifically addressed in the bible?

Resentment is one of those things that we harbor without realizing, or put up with by calling it something else, like mere disagreement. But, there are millions of secret beliefs that we might carry that are robbing life from us. We need 2 things if we are going to be whole, Christian people. 1: We need to be willing to examine our hearts against God's word, and in the presence of our trusted Christian brothers and sisters. In this way, we can't fool ourselves. 2. We need to be willing to accept that we can be, and often are, wrong about something. We need to be willing to put down our pride enough to receive an exhorting word from a trusted brother or sister in Christ. This is often painful. But, as Proverbs 27 says: Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.