TODAY IS…

the ideal day for reminding ourselves of our own imperfections.

“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”  Titus 3:3 NIV

Our efforts to follow Christ have borne fruit and we feel good about the progress we have made in our lives. We are thankful to God for His patience, compassion, and understanding. We are also grateful for those individuals He has blessed us with who have helped us in our struggle with our former selves as we have broken the bonds that once held us captive to lives of sin.

We are refreshed, renewed, and restored. We have accepted Christ and received our free gift of salvation. We can look comfortably in the mirror and be pleased with the image looking back at us. We can feel clean and know that we emit a glow of contentment when we walk among others.

The journey to this point has not always been an easy one. There have been rough spots in the road and we have stumbled, perhaps repeatedly, but each time that happened we knew to look to the Lord for a steady hand and an abundance of love and forgiveness.

No matter what we have come face to face with, God has never left our side.

What a wonderful feeling we have and how blessed we are that we have learned that using our freedom to do the right things is what makes us truly free. It is suddenly so wonderful to be alive!

“Praise God!” we say, “Praise God!”

And we mean it, and we do love Him, but then we do something that is very human, very easy to do, and very wrong: we judge someone else and look down upon him or her for what they do, say, or believe. This is very common.

In no way does that make it right.

It is simply another obstacle in the path that we must walk if we are to be righteous in the eyes of God. We must overcome this obstacle, so what must we do? We must remind ourselves that not only are we not better than the one we are looking down on, but we must also remind ourselves we once were that person and without God’s steady influence in our daily lives, we could be that person once again.

We must avoid, at all costs, the “holier than thou” position that so many seem to take.

Instead of looking down on other sinners, we must embrace them and encourage them. We must be a beacon of light for them and to do this we may have to share with them how we came into possession of that light. We must not be afraid to show others, or to remind ourselves, that we are not perfect, but with God’s help we are better every day.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson