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Stop Flattering Yourself

Stop Flattering Yourself
by
June 13, 2018
in News
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Psalm 36 —
I have a message from God in my heart
concerning the sinfulness of the wicked:
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
2 In their own eyes they flatter themselves
too much to detect or hate their sin.
3 The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful;
they fail to act wisely or do good.
4 Even on their beds they plot evil;
they commit themselves to a sinful course
and do not reject what is wrong.

I read somewhere that this is “pride month”. Those who take part in LGBT lifestyles are supposed to let their lifestyle choices be known openly and unapologetically. Those who do not take part in these lifestyles are supposed to laud and honor their bravery and courage.

One wonders what God thinks when he watches such pride in sin.

But taking pride in sin is not monopolized by one type of wrongdoer. Have you noticed how mass shooters often seem to have boasted to others privately over what they have considered doing? Or how kids giggle as they hide from supervision trying to get away with something naughty? Or how Christians act like pompous self-righteous pharisees boasting before God, “thank you for not making me like those sinners”? Or how we become whiny complainers about life, supporting each other in our cases for victimhood?

We all find our crew who will share in the sins we are comfortable with and we flatter each other with reasons why what we do isn’t so bad. None of our hearts are innocent from bristling at hearing God’s law tell us something is wrong. All of us have at some point committed ourselves to a sinful course, and even have taken pride in our plans.

Stop flattering yourselves. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Consider those words. God stands openly in opposition to us, when our sinful hearts dig into proud impenitence. God is our enemy at such moments, because we have chosen sin over Him. At such moments we have no fear or honor for the very one who stands ready to justly strike us down.

Instead, see your sin and hate it. Humble yourself in repentance. Confess your wrong doing and your wrong attitude. And our God gives grace to the humble. He lifts up the lowly. He does so by applying Christ’s wounds to us so that we are healed. He lifts us up by restoring to us the joy of salvation in Jesus’ name.

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Peace in Jesus,
Pastor John Gensmer

*Photo credit: By Erwin Gerodiaz [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

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