Day 202: Check Yourself

Romans 2:21-24

Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. No wonder the Scriptures say, “The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.

I’m sure we are all familiar with the statement, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.” I especially remember my mom saying it to me whenever I was getting out of line. My mom would always tell us when we were younger, “charity starts at home”. Basically what she meant by that was, everything starts with us, before we can talk about anyone or lead anyone else we have to make sure that we have everything in order. I believe that the above scripture points directly to this statement. I think sometimes we can get caught up in what other people are doing that we don’t step back and take a look at ourselves. This is something I’ve seen happen so much in the church, especially towards the younger generation. We are judged for the lifestyle we lead by older people because they don’t approve. Even if we are leading a life dedicated to Christ, many times people will have a problem in they way that we do that as well.

I have been led by people who told me not to do something while they were doing that very thing, and it baffled me once I found out because I found so many of my elders were telling me what to do simply because they were my elders and apparently I’m required to listen to them. But if you are doing the very thing you're telling me not to do, how is that leadership. This is why many times the church is equated with hypocrisy. However I believe that we can change that and the way to do is highlighted in the scriptures. Check yourself before you check anyone else. There’s a couple of other scriptures I want to point to to drive this message home.

Matthew 7:3-5

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.  

We are in no place to judge, we have to live our lives everyday for ourselves making sure that we are living right. We don’t have time to be judging other people. Yes, we can lead people to Christ and teach them about Christ but first we have to be taught, we have to be led. Many times people become Christians and overnight they turn into someone who all of sudden has the right to point out every sin in someone and let them know that they will be punished by God. I’ve been on both sides of that. We can’t be a Christian for all of two minutes and then think we have so much together that we can start telling other people how to live. We need to learn how to live like Christ first, before we can teach anyone else. We have some specks in our eyes that need to be removed before we can even start to see clearly.

John 8: 7-9

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.

This is a familiar passage to many of us, and what amazes me the most is that no one was able to cast a stone. No one but Jesus, who was the only one left standing there. These men were all revved up with stones in hand ready to kill this woman, without realizing that they themselves are in the same position as her. The were all sinners as well. Jesus gave them permission to cast the stone but only if they were without sin. At that moment they had to stop and think. They had to examine themselves and see that they were sinners same as this woman.

How many times have we been ready to throw a stone at someone else without checking ourselves first?

All this to say, check yourself. Make sure that you are living the way you’re supposed to before judging anyone else. In order to make the world a better place and advance God’s kingdom we must start with ourselves.

Reflection

1. Do you find yourself judging other people for their lifestyle and choices?
2. Are you without sin?
3. What are some things you need to work on as a Christian?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about what we discussed today, ask Him to search your heart and help you change the things that need to be changed in your life.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 203!

Day 137: How Are You?

Ecclesiastes 3:4

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

“Hello, How are you?”

“I’m good, and you?”

“I’m great, thanks for asking.”

This conversation or set of statements look familiar to you? We go through these statement on a daily basis. Without really thinking about it; it has become second nature to already have a prepared answer when asked how we are doing. Usually, the answer is, “good”, “great”, “fine”, and on a rare occasion we might get an “okay”, Rarely do we tell people how we are actually doing, not even our closest friends.

“How are you?” has become another way of saying hello, instead of a real concern. I’m not saying that we are not concerned with how others are doing, I’m saying that the question “how are you?’ does not mean how are you anymore. It means hello. Many times we already know what people are going to say when we ask and we know what to say when we are asked. But I have a question, if God asked us how we were doing, what would we say? Would we be honest with Him about everything going on with us, or would we tell Him that we are “fine” or good?

Now to take it a step further, sometimes we say fine when everything is falling apart, we say well when we are doing terrible, and we say okay as a cry for help. This may not be true for everyone, but I know it is true for many of us. We talked before about how there are many people walking around broken and if we just take the time to pray for them or with them, they will experience God’s healing. We talk about how we can save a life just by checking in on someone. Now what about ourselves, what about when we are walking around broken. Many of us are walking around broken but ignoring our feelings. We must stop this and take care of ourselves.  We often believe in healing from God for others, but why is it so hard to believe for ourselves? Why is it so hard to pray for ourselves? Why is it so hard to check in with ourselves when we are falling apart? Why do we cover up our own pain? We are not helpful to anyone else if we are at the bottom of the pit ourselves. It reminds me of when I’m having a bad day and I’m sure most of us have experienced this. I can walk around falling apart on the inside, but I’m holding it together on the outside, barely, but I’m holding it together. The moment someone asks if I’m okay, everything comes pouring out. We hold things in until we cannot hold it anymore then it all comes storming out of us. We hold too much in and we become like a ticking time bomb, all it takes is for someone to press the right button and we will explode all over the place. My friends, this is not how we are destined to live, we serve a God who works around the clock, giving us twenty-four-hour service. We can come to Him at any time of day or night and He will be there. We do not have to harbor the pain we go through. We do not have to silence our struggles or whatever it is we are going through. We do not have to suppress our emotions, it is okay. God is here for us.

We neglect ourselves too often, sometimes we have to sit back and consider how we are actually doing. What’s going on inside us, check in on our soul, see how everything is going. We all want to be selfless, but that does not mean that we neglect ourselves to do so, it does not mean that we forget about our own feelings. Sometimes we just have to stop and pray for ourselves, sometimes we have to cover ourselves. Sometimes we have to give ourselves some “me time”. It is necessary, please don’t neglect or overlook yourself, it’s not a healthy way to live.

Reflection

1. How are you doing?
2. Really, how are you doing?
3. If God asked you how you were doing right now, what would you say?
   
   

Prayer Time

Take the time today to check in with yourself, search your heart. Bring it to God. Pray for yourself today, you know what you need to pray for yourself, lift yourself up in prayer today.

I love you, and I pray you have an amazing day or evening. Take care of yourself today. Share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 138! Enjoy you day!!!