Day 2455 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Job 33:27 NIV

People used to say that honesty was the best policy. These days it seems more like they see honesty as some kind of burden that needs to be dealt with rather than the factory setting that it should be. Our world is so used to running under false pretenses and comfortable lies that some people may not even remember what it's like to just be open and honest with others. But in reality, being honest is the only thing that really helps anyone.

This verse from Job from my reading last night really goes along with what we talked about yesterday. We need to strip away this facade that we've put up regarding our faith. It doesn't make us better than anyone else. It doesn't put us up on some pedestal where we can look down on those around us. If anything, our faith reminds us that we're the problem. It confirms that we're the ones who are the broken, the lost, the hurting.

But anymore it's almost like people use faith and our pursuit of righteousness as this ticket to be arrogant. We spend time judging the sinner more than we do the sin. We talk down to people like they’re the ones who have problems and need to figure themselves out so that they are worthy of our time and attention. We look at people strange if they don’t wear the right things to church. We pay more attention to their actions than we do our own.

That’s a problem! Part of the message that we’ve been entrusted with is that we’re all broken sinners in need of a Savior. It’s not that we’re the perfect ones who are to beat others into submission. That’s not going to win very many people over to Christ. But what can is honesty. Sharing our testimonies of all that Christ has delivered us from and the changes that He’s made in our lives. Helping others see that we’re no better than they are and that all of this measuring is only a distraction from what really matters.

The bottom line is that we’re all sinners who have all fallen short and who all need God’s saving grace because we’ll never be perfect. That’s the message that we need to share. This verse from Job is what we need to share. Arrogance, haughtiness, pride, and vanity will only make people think that our faith is all about us and that couldn’t be further from the case. Our faith is all about God. It’s about His willingness to forgive. It’s His love that covers our flaws. It’s His mercy that’s our only hope.

What people need to hear is that it’s okay to not be okay. They need to hear that we’re all messed up but that His love is more than enough to fill the gaps and plug the holes. They need to know that God isn’t going to turn them away because they’re not perfect. They need to hear that there is freedom from the guilt and shame of the sins and mistakes we’ve made, but only in laying them at the foot of the cross and letting them go. They need to hear that we’re all broken and nobody is in this to be proven righteous or worthy because none of us ever will be.

One of the most amazing parts of the Gospel is the part where we can all say that “I did not get what I deserved.” All of us deserve what Christ endured. All of us deserve the hopeless existence that is an eternity spent in hell. But all of us have been given the chance to turn away from that back to Christ and accept His gift of mercy and forgiveness. That’s what people need to know. Not that being a Christian makes you better than anyone else, but that being a Christian helps you see the gift of not getting what we all deserve.

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