You are known as a Christian person, and go on hearing, praying, and receiving, yet miserable you may be. Look about you; did you ever yet see Christ to this day, in distinction from all other excellencies and righteousness in the world, and all of them falling before the majesty of His love and grace? Isaiah 2:17 Thomas Wilcox
Each person must examine his or her own heart as Paul said in II Corinthians 13:5. It is not enough to hear, pray, and receive, but it is vital to search the heart to know if we see Christ in what we are doing. Our hearts are deceptive, the devil is the deceiver, and sin is deceptive. On top of that, God judges the wicked and hardens their hearts and blinds them. While that may seem like insurmountable obstacles, grace can overcome any and all obstacles. But all should examine their hearts.
We must ask ourselves questions in helping to examine our hearts. One, you must ask yourself what is your deepest motive in what you am doing. While you may know the right answers to the questions, that is a different thing than actually having that as your deepest motive. Two, you must ask yourself what is your deepest motive and desire in what you am doing. These questions must be put to the heart in terms of all religious activities, including prayer, Bible study, the sacraments, and hearing Scripture. Three, you must ask yourself why you refrain from sin. The soul can refrain from sin not because it desires Christ more than the world, but because it is the religious thing to do in which the soul takes pride in. It is also a sneaky way for self-righteousness to enter in. Four, we must ask ourselves why we do good works. We can do good works in order to see ourselves as righteous or perhaps for others to think of us as righteous rather than out of love for the Christ of glory.
Another way to ask the questions or perhaps another angle from which to view these questions is from the angle of righteousness. In our religious actions and in fleeing from sin we can simply examine our hearts to see if we are looking to our own righteousness when we do what we do and when we don’t do what we don’t do or if we are looking to the majesty, glory, grace, and righteousness of Christ. Is it from an attraction to His beauty and a love for His grace that we pursue Him in prayer or is it from a desire for self-righteousness that we do so? Is it from the fact that free-grace has provided a perfect righteousness that we may approach Him and from that free-grace we may do all out of love for Him and His glory or is it self-righteousness that we do what we do?
The heart that loves Christ and does all through Him and by the strength of His grace and love is the one that is doing all for Him and fleeing sin for His sake. But again, our hearts will tell us that we are doing those things out of love for Him simply because we know that we should love Him and so we tell ourselves that we do. However, we can know that we are to do all through Him and by the strength of His grace and still do things by the power and love of self. Knowing about something is far different than being moved by the power of the reality of it in the depths of our souls.
We can pray because we are supposed to and we can pray out of love for self. We can pray because we want others to be healed and we can pray because we want things for self. We can pray with words for the glory of God while our hearts are satisfied with our self-righteousness because we are praying for the glory of God. But the truth of the matter is that we are to pray for the glory and honor of God out of a true love for the glory and honor of God, but that true love for God will never come from the power of the flesh, human nature, and self-love. The work of Christ on the cross has freed us from the wrath of God so that we may love Him and serve Him without fear of wrath. The righteousness of Christ has freed us from the need to obtain righteousness so that we may be instruments of His glory without the need to do what we do and not do what we don’t do for self-righteousness. The grace of God in Christ has given us all the strength that is needed in Christ that we may bear the fruit of grace and holiness for His glory rather than seeking our own glory. All spiritual blessings are in Christ and come from Christ while there are no spiritual blessings in the flesh and that can come from the flesh. Let us behold the Lord Jesus in His glory and fall before Him and His majesty and grace in awe. He is worthy to have all done from His grace and for His glory.
God Loves... Himself 
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