What if doing our best meant actually pouring ourselves out...just forsaking all that is in the sinful flesh and truly depending on the Lord.
You might be hesitant to just pour yourself our before the Lord...you might worry about the mess you'll have as you confess sin, and pride and you deal with the depths of a depraved mind and heart. But guess what? No matter the mess...you aren't the one cleaning it up. In fact...the One who is cleaning up the mess...is the only One who can take your ugly disgusting stinking mess and turn it into a beautiful shining testament of God's glory! Just like the messes of spilled milk, sometimes it's layers upon layers of cleaning until you get to the very bottom of the mess and see that shiny floor again.
The Lord is so gracious to our family, because as we go through the dailyness of life and the turmoil of trying circumstances...He constantly draws us before Him, and uses His word to search our hearts. Not only that, but He continually calls us to search our own motives. Sometimes we want something so bad, we can get so clouded by self-righteous ideas...and justifications for our wants that we can't see the forest through the trees so to speak.
Over and over as I've been praying for our family, both my immediate and extended...the Lord has graciously brought to mind Romans 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."
Sometimes I'm tempted to "justify" myself. Share my true motives and heart. Sometimes it is appropriate...sometimes it's not. Let's be honest...most of the time when we feel we have to justify ourselves or our actions it's out of fear of man or pride. Either man's judgement on our actions (whether real live actions or perceived....I'm sure we've all experienced both).....or the slander and viciousness of others that for one reason or another may not be our biggest fan stir within our hearts a desire to clarify things.
The older I get, the more constant the Lord speaks to my heart about compassion. Perhaps the one who is so quick to judge me for my sin, is inwardly struggling with that very same sin and has yet to remove the plank. Perhaps....the one who so quickly assigns sinful actions to my account...themselves are guilty of that very sin. Perhaps...we ought to spend more time looking in the mirror of God's word than the companions in our household of faith...after all...Christ Himself is the standard..not other believers.
I love in Romans 12, the "subtitle" of the section this verse comes from in my bible is "Marks of a True Christian" Somewhere along the journey dear friend, Jesus is calling you to lay down the fight for your "self" and to simply choose love, grace and TRUTH. That truth comes from the Word of God. And the only way we can ensure that the word will be on our lips..is if it is truly in our hearts. It gets there not by osmosis dear friend, it gets there by passionately pursuing Christ in His word!
Next time your mouth or in our day and age...your fingers (via text...email...twitter...facebook....or whichever social media you choose) is tempted to run rampant with judgement....why not stop..and pause...and PRAY...asking the Lord for compassion on the one you are passing judgement on....grace to REMOVE your own log....and perseverance to truly empty ourselves at the cross and make His priorities ours.
If I'm going to err in my walk with Christ, let it be said that I trusted Him too much, let it be said that I extended too much grace, let it be said I loved to passionately. Not that I cast stones of judgement freely at the body of Christ, the family of God.
Sweet sweet sojourner....it is the very love of Christ that MUST control us...2 Corinthians 5:14
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