It is written that we are to "examine" ourselves. In addition, we are admonished by Jesus Himself that we are to "pick up our cross" and "follow Him". The "picking up our cross" is, in part, crucifying our flesh, which is encompassed by our own stubborn egos and our very deeply "rooted and uber-stubborn "self-will", burying it, and giving it a headstone so it doesn't raise its ooooogly head again.
It is also connected to the "fear of the Lord", which it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God and to truly "know" Him without it.
There is a "wisdom" required to truly "know" God. And this wisdom is spoken of here:
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." ~Pr 9:10
As it is written, we can have only One Master. It is HIS will that must prevail, and not "ours". Obedience is what God seeks, and there is NO obedience without first laying our lives down (via that stubborn and rebellious "self-will") and crucifying it.
We cannot claim that the living God is our Master, if we are our own "little gods". (Sound familiar? Who was it that said in the beginning that he would be as God and sit the throne of the Most High? Well it was as Jesus called him, the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. And he was called murderer for good reason. because the only way to "de-throne" the living God would've been, at least this created being's mind, was to "murder" God. However he forgot that it is God Who IS Creator, and he, a "created" being. This being had an "Achilles Heel", so to speak. It was his own self-will and pride. It is the same for man. Our own pride and self-wills prompt us to want to be our own "little gods".)
And the last thing a prideful, self-willed, created being (whether man or Lucifer, re-named Satan as in "adversary" wants is to "fear" the living God, and thus "bow down to Him".
Thus the wisdom of this powerfully incisive and convicting and soul-and-heart searching treasure of a verse:
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." ~Pr 9:10