January 12, 2014

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. – James 1:23-24

I think this is one of the best devotions I have read in a long time.  Dungy entitled it “Facing Reality” and I think that is something we rarely ever do.  I can count on one hand the number of times where I felt I had a true sense of my reality of innumerable faults, self-worth, and position under Christ.  There is a peace there, but it is hard to stay there.

Dungy comments, “To develop a good game plan in life, we need to know who we really are – not how others perceive us, not the image of who we want to be or who society says we should be, but our true selves.  …  We need to know our strengths and weaknesses and how they fit into the big picture.”

He continues, “We must occasionally stop and take stock of who we are and what our goals are.  And we need an objective standard to do that, not just our personal opinions.  When we measure ourselves, our thoughts, our actions, and our goals by our own standards, we may end up missing the mark.  Our perceptions aren’t always accurate.  But if we measure these things by God’s Word, we are basing our lives on reality, not perceptions.”

If a doctor told you that he suspected you had cancer and wanted to do an MRI to look and see, would you turn it down?  Of course not!  You’d get an MRI as soon as possible and then follow with treatment for the disease as soon as you could get it.  However, we don’t apply that same sense of urgency to our spiritual and character flaws and they are much more important.

A preacher once said that when the song leader asked everyone to stand and sing “Standing on the Promises” everyone politely obliges, but what they all were really doing was sitting on the premises.  I need to be careful that I take the time to ask God to show me my true ugly self so I can get to that spiritual hospital and get it treated.  Then I can take that step from sitting on the premises to standing on the promises.