Highly Favored

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10 (KJV)

I don’t know about you, but sometimes being a Christian means having an internal battle with the self. You’ll know that the Holy Spirit is truly at work within you when you start seeing yourself for what you really are. You will begin to chastise yourself for the things you do throughout the day that you know aren’t pleasing to God. Although, the process is slow and will certainly vary from person to person, when the Holy Spirit works from within, you start seeing how unrighteous you really are.

We have all seen that one person in church, who refuses to believe that they could ever do anything that would go against the word of God. They are too saved and too righteous for that. They never really let anyone in because they feel that they’ve gotten better than everyone else. They are so self-righteous and don’t believe anything they will ever do from now on could possible be wrong. They don’t need the lessons, because they’ve already learned everything they need to know. And while they may know alot; they may actually study the Bible; they may actually be kind and generous to others – there will always be something more to learn about God – so pretending to know it all is really just a refusal to grow.

I’m going to be honest, I’ve been this person. I’ve done this in waves – times when I drift in and out of this phase. I’m better than I used to be, but I’ve still got a ways to go with this. Avoiding self-righteousness is one of many things that require constant prayer. Help me to see myself the way you see me, Lord. Is a prayer that will have your eyes opening before you know it. I think God wants it this way so that we can assess ourselves and evaluate our lives.

No, the Scripture above does not give people to sin freely. What it does is acknowledges that to act like we haven’t sinned is to negate the need for Jesus. If we could have gotten it right ourselves, God wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of sending us His only begotten Son. To deny that will have done wrong is to allow the sufferings and blood of Jesus to go in vain.

He went through entirely too much for us to keep doing that. I’m going to attempt to make a conscious effort throughout my day to ask for forgiveness. I should be specific when I can – sometimes we don’t realize what we’ve done is sin, but realize it or not it’s still sin. I’m going to ask for the cleansing of the blood of Jesus to fall on me. This will have to be done repeatedly – it’s not a one time deal. I’m going to rely on the Holy Spirit’s tap on my shoulder to remind me and help me to avoid reverting to self-righteousness – because in reality it is simply a bold, unrighteous self-lie.

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