Mere Openness
The “openness” that is often praised among Christians as a sign of true humility may sometimes be an oblique effort to prove that there is no such thing as a saint after all, and that those who
believe that it is possible to live a holy life are only deceiving themselves. When we enjoy listening to some Christian confess his weaknesses and failures, we may be eager only to convince ourselves that we are not so bad after all. We sit on the edge of our chairs waiting to grasp at an excuse for continuing to do what we have made up our minds long ago to do anyway. The Lord is ready to forgive sin at any moment and to make strong servants out of the worst of us. But we must believe it; we must come to Him in faith for forgiveness and deliverance and then go out to do the work He has given us to do. “Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity” (1 Corin-
thians 13:6, KJV). Let us be willing to call iniquity what is really iniquity, rather than to call it weakness, temperament, failure, hang-ups, or to fall back on the tired excuse, “It’s just the way I am; at least I’m open about it.”
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
PSALM 51:10, KJV
© 2003 by Elisabeth Elliot Gren
4 comments:
Thanks Chela. That inspires me to pursue holiness with even more urgency. I am a Saint, but I want to live like one!
Reminds me of some of the words in one of Derek Webb's songs:
SAINT AND SINNER
‘Cause i’m not a half a man
i’m not a half a man
Lord knows i love you now
But a saint and a sinner is what i am
And it doesn’t get better once you see the light
You wake to find that the fight has just begun
I used to be a damn mess but now i look just fine
‘Cause you dressed me up and we drank the finest wine
Thank you for sharing thoughts, friend. I've been thinking about this very thing, and we should talk about it over drinks.
Marcella, I am so happy to see some Derek Webb quoted here (no reason :) ). This is such a good point. I find it so easy to call my iniquities fall backs and tell myself 'its just how I am.' Well, these 'fall backs' need to be put to death. Cause the fight has just begun.
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