The Image of God Test

TEST:
After each question, pick the number from 1-10 that best relates to how you act and write it down. Take it yourself and then if you’re married, have your spouse take it for you to ensure accuracy. 😉 The true or false scale will be given after each question. On many of the questions, it will be helpful to think of the numbers as percentages, such as 5 being 50% of the time. Let’s begin!

1. When I find myself in an argument, I try to prove my points and defend myself rather than assuming I’m probably wrong at some level and trying to understand the other person. (10 is definitely false)

2. When I come home from work, I tend to have a sense of entitlement where I believe I am the most important person and should be given the right to do whatever I want so >I< can relax. (10 is definitely false)

3. I go out of my way to open a door for someone and sometimes stand there for a second until they reach the door. (10 is definitely true)

4. When something negative happens in my life, I immediately ask the Father what He’s trying to teach me instead of complaining and getting angry about it. (10 is definitely true)

5. I tend to want to be by myself and would rather do things alone rather than be around people or family members. (10 is definitely false)

6. I intentionally go out of my way to bless someone and lighten their load instead of being oblivious to what others are going through. (10 is definitely true)

7. When I see or hear of someone in sin, my first thought is “I wonder what they’re going through. I need to pray for them” instead of “I can’t believe they did that/are acting like that. I knew they were a ^@#%$. They deserve….” (10 is definitely true)

8. When I’m overwhelmed because of work and things to do, I tend to get anxious and stressed out and rarely start thanking and praising the Father for His help and divine assistance. (10 is definitely false.)

9. When I’m tempted to judge someone because of something I heard or saw, instead of doing so without talking to them first, I always assume that I’m missing information and say to myself, “I’m also a sinner, just in a different area. And by the grace of God go I. May the Father do mighty things in their life and draw them closer to Himself in their time of struggle.” (10 is definitely true)

10. When I see someone in financial need and it is within my power to fill it, I normally ignore the need and hope that someone else will meet it. (10 is definitely false)

11. When I have nothing to do, my first inclination is to fulfill my desires by doing what I want to do instead of trying to find someone that needs help or encouragement. (10 is definitely false)

12. I give ten percent of my income to the LORD to further His kingdom in the earth realm rather than keep all that He has given me for myself. (Pick the number 1-10 of the percent you gave last year to charity.)

13. I spend at least 15 minutes in a conference call with the Lord (prayer) every day. (10 is definitely true)

14. I can easily give up something I really want (food, dessert, best seat, etc.) to someone else because it makes me happier to give it away than to keep it for myself. (10 is definitely true)

15. When I can tell someone is having a bad day, I go out of my way to encourage them or do something for them to cheer them up. (10 is definitely true)

16. When I am angry, I normally say what I’m thinking, lash out, and then regret things I said later. (10 is definitely false)

17. When someone is talking, I normally interrupt them and talk over them instead of patiently waiting for them to finish. (10 is definitely false)

18. Whenever I am by myself in the car, walking, or wherever, I find myself talking to the Lord and praising Him for all He does for me and for being in control of my life instead of listening to music, the radio, the news, etc. (10 is definitely true)

19. I am actively learning about the Bible and spiritual things by reading at least 3 chapters from the Bible or another spiritual book every week. (10 is definitely true)

20. When someone makes a mistake, I tend to make them feel stupid about it and find myself making sarcastic statements. (10 is definitely false)

21. I tend to take things personally and always feel like people are talking about me and out to “get me.” (10 is definitely false)

22. I’m good at dropping subtle hints to people to let them know I’m not happy or in an effort to get my way or let my feelings be known. (10 is definitely false)

23. When I feel left out of something, I make my feelings known by making the other person feel guilty, especially through my joking. (10 is definitely false)

24. I would rather be doing my favorite hobby than spending time with my kids or my spouse. (10 is absolutely false)

25. I am easily jealous of other people. (10 being absolutely false)

26. I believe that most of my relationship problems are because others don’t understand me. (10 is absolutely false)

27. I am a kind person. (10 is absolutely true)

28. I am a patient person. (10 is absolutely true)

29. I am faithful to those I love in every area. (10 is absolutely true)

30. I exhibit excellent self-control when I’m frustrated or angry. (10 is absolutely true)

31. When I find myself debating someone about something (including theology), I do not get frustrated easily and I make sure that I make the other person feel respected in their viewpoint while I’m trying to convey my points. (10 is definitely true)

32. If I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone, I get easily distracted and sometimes get up to go to the bathroom or something without asking permission or letting them know what’s going on. (10 is definitely false)

33. When someone comes to me and tries to get me to see that I’ve hurt them or that I’ve done something wrong, I normally get very defensive instead of being quiet and truly trying to learn from their perspective. (10 is definitely false)

34. I sincerely pray for those who have hurt me and wish no ill against them. (10 is absolutely true)

35. I tend to look for inconsistencies and contradictions in people and feel like it’s my responsibility to point them out to others. (10 is definitely false)

36. I tend to make sure I get my way. (10 is definitely false)

37. I always make sure that if I have aught against someone or them against me that I do everything in my power to go to them and work things out. (10 is definitely true)

38. I don’t like conflict and I tend to ignore the situation rather than deal with it. (10 is definitely false)

39. I joke around too much and tend to hurt people’s feelings through my cutting and sarcastic statements. (10 is definitely false)

40. I regularly make an effort to make others around me feel special and valued. (10 is definitely true)

41. When someone tells me negative information about another person, my first instinct is to not believe it and assume that there is missing information. (10 is definitely true)

42. When someone says or does something that really hurts me, my natural instinct is to hurt them back rather than love them and pray for them. (10 is definitely false)

43. I give more grace to others than I do myself. (10 is definitely true)

44. When I get angry I am prone to cursing. (10 is definitely false)

45. I am very patient when making decisions and do not make decisions out of emotion. I almost always pray about it and get counsel first. (10 is definitely true)

46. My main philosophy on conflict resolution is to just ignore it, sweep it under the carpet, and try to just be nice to the other person. (10 is definitely false)

47. My philosophy on conflict resolution is to seek out the other person even if I think I am right and repent before them of anything that I have done wrong. I am not a “stuffer” and believe that we should sweep nothing under the rug and everything should be talked about and put on the table. I believe that every feeling is valid and should be recognized no matter how illogical it might appear to be. I care more about the other person’s feelings than my own and my entire motivation behind approaching them is to do my best to repent and release them from any pain that I have caused. (10 is definitely true)

48. When I see a negative post online, I do not remain silent. I always respond lovingly with a positive comment intended to encourage people to think the best about the person or situation. (10 is definitely true)

49. Pick a number from 1-10 to classify how much of your life you live in a state of peace. This does not mean that you’re not busy but that even in chaos you maintain an inner peace that is obvious from the perspective of others. (10 being perfect peace all the time)

50. I do my best to honor the Sabbath and His feast days, to only eat foods approved by Scripture, and to honor His commandments. (10 is definitely true)

Now, add up your score.

500 is a perfect score.
450-500 is an A. You are walking in the image of God
400-449 is a B
350-399 is a C
300-349 is a D
299 or below is an F

Now, be real and share your score in the comments below. Tell others what you learned and what the Lord revealed to you from this test. What do you need to work on most? Where are your strong points? Were you surprised by your score? How different was your score versus the one your spouse gave you?

For those of you who pride yourselves on keeping the Torah instructions of God, you will notice that 49 of the 50 questions had nothing to do with what you might consider “commandments.” In fact, those 49 are actually the heaviest of all the commandments because they deal with love for our fellow man. Yeshua said that the rest of the Law hangs off of the two love commandments. And the apostle Paul said that if we have not love we have nothing. This test is in proportion to how the entire Bible is put together. There are only 613 commandments respectfully. But the rest of the Bible is story after story of man’s successes and failures of loving their neighbor as themselves and keeping the Creator #1 in their lives.

Friends, the Jewish roots/Hebrew roots, Messianic/Christian roots/Doing Bible things in Bible ways movement 😉 will never go anywhere until the world begins to see the image of Christ in us–and that image is LOVE! The above test is only to illustrate just how much we put ourselves first and make life all about US, which is the characteristic and image of HaSatan. Keeping the feast days, the Sabbath, wearing some cool tassels on your belt, or bragging about which calendar is right or how to correctly pronounce a name makes you no more in His image than a pig wearing ruby red lipstick and a tutu. Even the religious Pharisees did those things and Yeshua called them a brood of vipers. Ouch!

What DOES make us in His image is when we fully give of ourselves to others with no expectation of receiving anything in return. THAT is what He does. He gives to us, even if it is extremely difficult (like allowing His Son to be crucified), just because He loves us and wants the best for us. How often do we do that? How often do we put others first? How often do we remain silent on Facebook when others are slandering and spreading negative gossip about others when we should be like Phineas and shut it down? How often do we pay for someone’s dinner in a restaurant just to get the opportunity to say “God loves you”? When was the last time you came home from a hard day’s work and immediately chose to do something to help your spouse because you get more joy out of relieving their stress than your own? When was the last time that you gave your tithe to a charity not because you felt an obligation to but because you felt so darned blessed by how much He has impacted your life that you can’t wait to be a part of helping Him grow His kingdom? When was the last time you sent a real thank you or birthday card instead of an email? How about the next time you’re in an argument you actually listen to the heart of the other person instead of judging their every word and take the position that you are probably wrong (’cause guys, you probably are…just face it)?

The questions could go on and on. The point of all this is that when it all comes down to it, most of us are not keeping the REAL Covenant of our King. Keeping the Sabbath is actually pretty easy. Feasting on the feast day? I’ve got that one down. But loving my neighbor as myself? And in ALL situations? Following the protocols of Scripture for relationships, conflict resolution, church discipline, praying for our enemies, judging others, etc.? THAT, my friends, is really keeping Torah. Over the next several weeks I will be writing articles that will highlight some of the most important items that we need to focus on if we are ever going to see some “move” in this “movement” and if we are ever going to be in the image of God. In the meantime, I would encourage you to find the areas that you were weak in and really make an effort to attack those weaknesses in your life. Through Christ…you can do all things!

Shalom,
Jim Staley