How good is good enough? Will you ever be good enough to merit God's favor? Let's be honest here. If you've ever even taken a moment to think about yourself (which I'm sure you have-isn't that what we spend most of our time thinking about?), and if we are honest with ourselves we would surely know that what lies beneath the surface of our finely coiffed exteriors is pure and utter selfishness, to the extend that we consider ourselves and what we want as paramount in this life. Don't tell me that in your heart of hearts you don't know that to be true?
Every day is a constant struggle to put away our own selfishness and put what Jesus wants first. In Matthew 16:23-25 it says, "Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.' Then Jesus said to his disciples, '
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.'" (NIV) Is it really possible to deny yourself in your own strength?
"You are from God,
little children, and have overcome them; because
greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." 1 John 4:4 (NASB)
"And He has said to me, '
My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather
boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore
I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties,
for Christ's sake;
for when I am weak, then I am strong. " 2 Corinthians 12:
"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:20-24 (NIV)
"So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:
There's nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They've all taken the wrong turn;
they've all wandered down blind alleys.
No one's living right;
I can't find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don't know the first thing about living with others.
They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place!
And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin." Romans 3:9-18 (The Message)
"
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13 (KJV)
You see, we can never be good enough! But through Christ we can achieve a righteousness that comes by faith in Him alone. God knew that we would never be able to achieve His standard of righteousness so He made provision for that fact from the beginning through the power of the blood of His one and only Son, Jesus. In Him we have forgiveness of sins, as it says in Colossians 1:13-14, "
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." And in Hebrews 9:22, "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (ESV)
"Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.
God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you." 2 Corinthians 5:16 (The Message)
Dear Lord, Help us to put away our pride and see ourselves for who we really are: People desperately in need of a Savior. Thank you that Your unfailing love provided a way for us to be made perfect through the precious blood of Your one and only Son, Jesus.
Resist the urge to be negative! Resist the urge to gossip! There is little that is more detrimental to our own health and the health of others than negativity and gossip! Dwell on the good! Accentuate the positive! Eliminate the negative! That old song has it right... We harm our relationships and ourselves when we continually talk about what is wrong with people. It doesn't mean we don't see it; it means we don't say it. I find that the more I speak negatively about others, the nastier I feel inside. Negativity breeds more negativity. 
