Skip to main content

Do We Really See Ourselves?

"You are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?" - Habakkuk 1:13

This verse is somewhat difficult for me to fully comprehend but AW Tozer offers this insight below:
"I must come to the point where I view iniquity as God views it, and treat it as God treats it.  I am not thinking of looking on other people's iniquity, but on the iniquity that haunts the corridors of my own soul.  It is one thing to point on iniquity in someone else's life, and tell him what God thinks of it; but it is another thing altogether to point out the iniquity in my own life and understand that God cannot look on that iniquity." - AW Tozer

You see, God cannot stand the sight of evil.  We often picture evil as thieves, adulterers, murderers, and other criminals.  And while doing so we neglect to see the faults in our lives, the evil and wrong inside of us.  We are all sinners (Romans 3:23) and have darkness in us that we often times refuse to look at and see.

And during these times of political correctness and the values that are being fought for on the national stage, we often are very quick, and sometimes too harsh, on attacking the wrong we see in others.  I am in no way saying that Christians should not be standing up for what the Bible says about the wrongness of abortion, sins of sexuality, and other things; but I am saying that we cannot approach others with a "holier than thou" attitude and expect solutions.  These answers must be given in love and humility knowing that we too have our own faults.

I cannot read and write this without examining myself and my own life.  I believe that my worst sin is pride.  Yes, I've done some good things and I do believe that I would have an impressive resume of achievements per say (See, I told you so).  But I also know what happens when I get too many pats on the back.  I get comfortable and cocky.  I begin to think that work is easy, that staying in shape is easy, that ministry is easy, that life is easy; and worst of all that I AM good at it.  I must be reminded and remind myself that if I can do all things through Christ, that I can do nothing in and of myself.  HE MUST be my source of strength.  I want to be successful at everything and able to always shoulder the load, but there are times when I can't.  I hate those times, but they are often when God is reigning me back in and reminding me that he is the worker and I am merely the tool. 

Tozer's prayer closed like this, "O Heavenly Father, help me to view my sin from Thy point of view.  Do not allow me to underestimate the horror of my sin.  Let me never become adjusted to the error of my way, but may I lean heavily upon Thy grace.  Amen"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worship > Fellowship

I believe that worship, true worship of God, is more important than fellowship with other believers.  Now I'm not saying that fellowship and relationships aren't important.  But I am saying that if I'm not worshiping God, if I'm not right with him, then my other relationships can't be right.  My fellowship and worship with him is more important than my relationship with my wife, my son, family, friends, my church, and my community.  Think about it.  How can I love my wife like Christ loved the church if I don't love Christ?  I wouldn't know how to love without knowing him.  Why should she submit to me if I'm not worth submitting to?  And yes I do believes wives should submit, but I also believe that won't be an issue as long as she's submitting to a godly husband.  (Ephesians 5:22-25) Our love for others must flow from our love and worship of God.  1 John 4:19-21 reads, "We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do You Need Revival?

"Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?" - Psalm 85:6 The thoughts below were in my devotional this morning by Dr. Lee Sheppard: "So how can we know if we need revival in our lives?  Well, we need revival when our salvation has lost its joy, when our sin does not break our heart, and when we make little to no effort to witness to the lost.  We need revival when worship becomes boring, when we are at odds with believers and see no need for reconciliation, and when we fail to believe God for the impossible.  We need revival when we have to be begged to give and serve in church and when we would rather make money than give money.  We need revival when we have to be entertained to be drawn to church and when we are indifferent to the fact that there are 2.5 billion people on the planet who have never heard the name of Jesus.  We need revival when we don't regularly see the supernatural evidence of God's power and when ...
Post a Comment
Read more