Monday Moment with God: Right Believing

The winner of last month’s giveaway was Mary Ann. This month I am giving away a copy of Mary Demuth’s new book NOT Marked. The link to enter is at the end of the post.

poor-bird-871298491631rfC courtesy of Vera Kratochvil — Photo courtesy of Vera Kratochvil

⁶All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 64:6

Have you ever had a disgusting mess to clean up. Like the goo in the bottom of your regrigerator that no one noticed until now. You look at it like it is the last thing you want to touch. You reach for the cleanser and the rags. Maybe even grab some gloves. You use the cleaning agent and scrub or mop it up. Then you are left with a filthy rag. Now there is something else to clean. Usually you would throw it in the washer and vigorously wash your hands. But what if you just held onto it. You just kept staring at it and willed it to be clean. What if you asked your friends to come over and help you will it to be clean? It would never work. You would have to wash it with a stain removing cleanser to make it clean.

Many of us are easily caught up in right living. We are preoccupied with what we can do to better ourselves. We are staring at our efforts to clean up the mess in our lives without recognizing that we are still dirty. No willpower will make us clean. Focusing on the filthy rags of our righteousness, our good works, takes the focus off of the work of the Savior.

I am reading a book called “The Power of Right Believing” by Joseph Prince. Something I once heard him say during a sermon is that we will do more right accidentally than we ever did on purpose when we believe right.

So how do you see yourself Beloved? Do you see yourself as the failure, never ever to measure up to standards. Mostly ones you have set? God wants us to focus on Him and how He overcame our failures with one sacrifice. Once and for all of us. A cleansing that removes every stain. Bring Him your filthy rags and surrender them to His work on the Christ.

Let’s keep our eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith, instead of our good works. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made it so that when we stand before God we are clothed in the righteousness of His son. This is what brings true joy. Guaranteed to bring peace to the most troubled heart.

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Isaiah 61:10 NIV

Turn your eyes upon Jesus ❤ Melinda