Day 2399 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Matthew 6:1 NIV

Thinking more about yesterday's topic of turning our eyes away from worthless things. You know, I think we really enjoy convincing ourselves that we're doing good enough. We like that feeling of pride and accomplishment that we find in checking off boxes and crossing things off a list. And we think that will work for just about anything in life. But in all reality, if our faith is based on nothing but a list of things that we think make us good people then we're kind of missing the whole point.

The truth is that most of human religion is worthless. It's based on rules and regulations that we humans have come up with to make us feel better about ourselves. We've sat around and written a bunch of rules that we expect ourselves and others to follow and we make that list our goal. We make a bunch of rules our guide to what make someone good or bad. The more of our rules we follow the better we can tell ourselves that we are. But true faith is about so much more than that.

If we're not careful, our rules can become our gods. We spend our time thinking only about what others have deemed right and acceptable. We mold our lives to fit inside these little boxes where being righteous only requires not breaking any of the big laws. Well, I've never murdered anyone so I'm doing alright. I've never stolen a car so I'm a pretty good person. I said that one prayer that one time a few years ago so I've got that going for me. Don't we want more than that?

We're so busy trying to prove to ourselves and those around us that we're good people that we've missed the entire point of the Gospel. We're more worried about making ourselves look good to others by checking all the right boxes and saying all the right things that we've forgotten it's not about us or these flimsy rules that our little minds have thought up. IT'S ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP!! But we've traded that for something that we can show off. We've traded a personal connection to our Savior for praise from those around us.

If we do all the right things but don't know Christ then it doesn't matter. We say everything just right but don't have Jesus in our hearts then we're still lost. If we check off every single man-made box just to tell ourselves that we're good people or to make others proud of us then we're only slaves to human opinion. That's not at all what our faith is about. And that's exactly what this verse right here is telling us. Spending our lives trying to gain the praise of those around us is worthless because it wastes time that we could be spending building a relationship with our Father.

When we're standing before God one day, He isn't going to be looking for a list of references to our good deeds. We're not going to be able to bring in a bunch of witnesses who will testify that we did some good things in our lives. It's going to be us and Him, and He already knows every single deed that we've ever done. What's absolutely crucial is whether or not we knew Him and lived our lives following His path. No amount of human rules or social praise can ensure either of those.

Please do not risk standing before Him only to hear, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." Living our lives only to please humans or convince ourselves and others that we're not all that bad isn't good enough. If we miss the relationship then everything else was worthless. Do not get lost in human religion because Christ came to do more than point us to a bunch of rules. He came to lead us to God. We cannot forget that He is the only way to the Father. So don't miss forging a relationship with our Savior because He is the only hope we have!

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