We can get ourselves in such a mess. Sometimes we think, "I'm a pretty good person and God must love me since I'm so much better than most other folks." Sometimes we think, "I am just not good enough, everybody else does so much better than me." These are two sides of the same shoddy t thinking.
You see, God sees you as you were created: in God's image, for a purpose and with infinite love: all our errors and mistakes -- sins using "churchy language" -- wholly covered by the Blood of Jesus. So if our perfection comes from the God who created us, redeemed by the God who died for us, living in us by the power of the Spirit of God, then what credit do we get to take? And how can we consider seriously that we are other than an absolutely wonderful and glorious creation?
None of us can consider how our "goodness" compares to the "goodness" of someone else because we cannot know the internal mechanism of temptation and sin. Maybe I look "better" than someone else, but they do amazing work for God compared to their gifts and burdens and I may be skating by with very little effort for what I am puffed up about.
In the end, it is never helpful to compare ourselves to others because we just don't know enough to even begin to understand the equation. And when we engage in this self-indulgent waste of time, we always wind up patting ourselves on the back falsely or bemoaning our status as chief sinner. All of that is smoke and mirrors spewed by the World to distract us from the primary issue here.
God does not make junk so I am not junk. God says Christ died for me, so I must be valuable to God. All the good I do I do by God's Grace. All the errors I make are never so great that God is not greater.
So when you look in the mirror while you brush your teeth, look at that amazing child of God! Ask God to give you the day you need rather than the one you want and thank God that no challenge or blessing comes without Grace in abundance.
The perfect God finds you acceptable, my friend. What argument against that has any weight?
But Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and by this God showed how much he loves us. Romans 5:8
You see, God sees you as you were created: in God's image, for a purpose and with infinite love: all our errors and mistakes -- sins using "churchy language" -- wholly covered by the Blood of Jesus. So if our perfection comes from the God who created us, redeemed by the God who died for us, living in us by the power of the Spirit of God, then what credit do we get to take? And how can we consider seriously that we are other than an absolutely wonderful and glorious creation?
None of us can consider how our "goodness" compares to the "goodness" of someone else because we cannot know the internal mechanism of temptation and sin. Maybe I look "better" than someone else, but they do amazing work for God compared to their gifts and burdens and I may be skating by with very little effort for what I am puffed up about.
In the end, it is never helpful to compare ourselves to others because we just don't know enough to even begin to understand the equation. And when we engage in this self-indulgent waste of time, we always wind up patting ourselves on the back falsely or bemoaning our status as chief sinner. All of that is smoke and mirrors spewed by the World to distract us from the primary issue here.
God does not make junk so I am not junk. God says Christ died for me, so I must be valuable to God. All the good I do I do by God's Grace. All the errors I make are never so great that God is not greater.
So when you look in the mirror while you brush your teeth, look at that amazing child of God! Ask God to give you the day you need rather than the one you want and thank God that no challenge or blessing comes without Grace in abundance.
The perfect God finds you acceptable, my friend. What argument against that has any weight?
But Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and by this God showed how much he loves us. Romans 5:8
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