Friday, November 6, 2009

Deceitful Comparisons

I have recently been convicted about making comparisons and judging others. Just this evening I found myself comparing by judging someone's "sins". Maybe not verbalizing it, but it my head comparing the two of us and giving myself the "I'm better" award. When the truth is, I am just as flawed. My heart deceives me into thinking I'm better because I do this, or I don't do that. Well, maybe not, but there are plenty of other things I do or don't do. I am by no means perfect, even though sometimes my pride-filled-self would like to think I am. Who am I to say (or think) that I am better than someone else. I (just like them) am  just  a sinner saved by grace.


James 4:6-12 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Acts 15:5-11 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." 





John 8:2-9 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.


It is way too easy for me to walk around from day to day thinking I'm just fine and dandy. I am humbled, but grateful that God brought this to my attention today. Please God, help me not to be a judgmental--prideful--blind to my own sins--person.  Keep me humble in my relationships.  Show me my true heart, and shine Your light so that sin cannot hide there.

3 comments:

Tiffany said...

What a great reminder. Thanks for sharing.

Karen said...

Amen...God has dealt with me on the holier-than-thou attitude, too...it took a lot of years to stop looking at what I see on the outside of people and making judgments...I still catch myself doing it on occasion and the Lord convicts my heart with so many reminders of my own self...good post!

Hazel said...

I love what you said about our deceiving hearts. We can't trust our hearts...our flesh nature, but we can trust God and His word!