Examine Every Corner

What does “examine every corner” mean to you? I’ll tell you what it means to me now. Plus, I’ll share how Jesus revealed a not-so-good thing in one of my corners.

Early in March, while exercising one day, I stretched and held my body in one specific position. All I could see was one corner of the ceiling. I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Every corner will be examined.” What did He mean by that message?

Then I shifted and my stretched body pointed to another corner of the ceiling. And again, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Every corner will be examined.” Every time I stretched, He had me look at a different corner in the room, whether a ceiling or a floor corner, I looked at them all and could see nothing new. Nevertheless, He kept saying, “Every corner will be examined.”

Did He mean, I should physically look closer at those corners? Was there something in those corners that I needed to clean? Were there spiders or cobwebs? Were there cracks? Was the paint wearing? At first, this is where my mind went since we’ve been focused on renovating our home. 

Then it dawned on me, He meant every corner in my life, including my heart, soul, and mind. I also imagined He meant more. One thing I was sure of, He didn’t mean examine my ceiling or floor corners. 

Now, after a month of Lent, I know He meant we (Jesus and I) would examine every corner in my life. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

The Beginning and The End

From the beginning to the end of our life with Jesus in this world, we walk a sanctification journey where Jesus sets us free from sin and purifies us for His holy work. 

At the beginning of March, I began, like many of you, the Lenten journey. I’ve been using 40 Days of Decrease by Alicia Britt Chole as one guide for my journey. Day one revealed Lent is not a project, but rather a cross-ward journey.

This Lenten journey is sanctifying my life corner-by-corner as I walk my cross-ward journey. We have to die to certain things in our life in order for Jesus’ new things to grow and live in and through us.

Recently, I’ve witnessed and rejoiced for others moving forward in their writing, careers, and dreams. From someone leaving one job to step forward into another job, to others who have written books and gotten them published, to some who hit milestones in follower counts, to others going on their dream vacation. And still others living their calling passionately and courageously. I’ve seen it all of late.

My Examined Corner

Do you ever feel happy for others when they reach a goal or one of their dreams comes true and at the same time you feel jealous of them?

Happiness and jealousy have lived in the same corner of my life, and Jesus revealed it to me today. I didn’t realize these two could co-exist together in the same corner inside of me, but they do. We examined this corner together.

This isn’t the first time Jesus has revealed jealousy to me. Years ago, I was jealous of an old girlfriend of my husband. But at the time he was just my boyfriend. Still, when I came across some letters from his old girlfriend, a big ugly monster started crawling inside of me. So today, when Jesus revealed I had jealousy living in a corner, I immediately took action.

Examine Every Corner

Sometimes we don’t want to examine our corners because we are afraid of what we will find. We may think Jesus won’t love us or He will be so disappointed and angry with us that He will say something hurtful to us and make us feel even worse. But as Alicia Britt Chole notes, “God does not reveal sin or weakness to mock us. God ‘reveals to heal.’” (40 Days of Decrease, p. 155)

Chole also notes that “Self is a poor discerner of self” (p. 155). We need Jesus to help us examine every corner because we are not good at it. In fact, most of us are too afraid to look in the corners. We’ve probably all experienced spiders living in corners. In order to get rid of the spiders, someone has to point them out first.

Spiders live in the corners inside of us too. Jesus pointed to one of my spiders: jealousy. I want Jesus to kill jealousy so it can’t continue living in me. And I want to help Him clean up the cobweb mess so it doesn’t catch anything undesirable or attract other spiders. I want my heart, soul, and mind to be purified of jealousy because “jealousy is rottenness to the bones.” Proverbs 14:30 (NASB)

And as I learned long ago, jealousy is like a poisonous spider, just ready to inject its venom into anyone it finds. At the very least, it steals peace. But sometimes, jealousy robs and kills relationships. And I certainly don’t desire the consequences of jealousy.

Jesus wants to clean the corners, rid us of the spiders and their growing cobwebs that prevent us from having clean and healthy hearts, souls, and minds.

Psalm 139

I don’t remember the first time I read Psalm 139, but I’ve read it many times throughout my life. I’ve prayed many times this brave psalm that David wrote. From beginning to end, Psalm 139 acknowledges who God is, who we are to Him, and how we can sojourn this sanctification journey His way. 

It’s a prayer we should pray on our cross-ward journey regularly. But, we need to humble ourselves, trust Jesus will not mock us or reveal anything to us that we are not ready to tackle with His help.

We need to acknowledge what David acknowledged. Jesus knows everything about us, more than we know about ourselves. Maybe it’s time we stop ignoring the corners of our lives, and start to examine every corner instead. 

But to do that effectively, we need Jesus to reveal what needs to be seen so He can heal us, free us from sin, and purify us so that we can do His holy work.

After all, Jesus knows us inside and out. He knows everything about us. Like David acknowledged in the beginning of his psalm, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” Psalm 139:1-3 (NIV)

Nothing is surprising to Jesus.

Cross-ward Journey Prayer

Let us bravely pray how David ended his psalm,

“Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)

As we move forward, let us join Jesus on the cross-ward journey. Let us let Him examine every corner of our lives and see if there is any offensive way in us. May we be brave to examine our corners, to see what Jesus points out. May we cooperate with Him to clean us up. And may He set us free from sin and purify us to do His holy work.