Over the entrance to the Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi there were inscribed these words, “Know yourself”, and until we do know ourselves we can make no progress in our life and relationship with God.  It is extraordinarily easy to go through life with an entirely false opinion of oneself, being blinded by pride to one’s true state; shutting one’s eyes to what one is; and believing only what one wants to believe.

True self-knowledge, however, is to see ourselves not as others see us but as our Maker sees us; and the first essential step towards that is the practice of self-examination undertaken with a sincerity that is determined to look for and to discover the cold, unpalatable truth.  But to take a realistic view by seeing ourselves as we really are in the sight of the all-holy God, to whom all our heart is open, all our desires are known, and from whom none of our secrets is hidden – to do that is an undertaking which our pride and self-esteem find most offensive.

And yet, when individuals see how little of their heart and mind is given to God; and how often they commit the sins of anger, envy, ill-will, an unforgiving spirit and such like; when they scrutinise their innermost thoughts, their words and their actions and acknowledge with shame all that is wrong – then they give up pretending.  Then they admit that they are what the Prayer Book rightly calls “a miserable sinner”, that is, a sinner who needs the mercy and forgiveness of God.