The mirror we trust

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! (Philippians 3:9-11 NLT)

How many times do we count on our own efforts to make us feel 'better' about ourselves? If you preen in front of the mirror each morning, are you doing it to please God, yourselves, or others? While I am grateful that I have a hairbrush, toothbrush, and soap, I don't spend a whole lot of time focusing on physical appearance. I choose not to wear makeup, but there is nothing wrong with it. I choose not to curl my hair or straighten it with a flat iron, though those styles are quite nice on others. I do choose to sit each morning with my Bible, read a bit, spend some time writing my blog notes, and just listening to what he says to me. To me, that is more valuable than any'preening' I do to make myself 'look better' each day (although I don't skip the toothbrush or hairbrush, either!). 

Our own righteousness is pretty much 'futile' in the face of all the compromise around us, within us, and about to come our way. We need one who is much stronger than our own willpower or 'coverup ability' to make us right again. Our faith in the finished work of Christ may seem a little silly to the non-believer, but to the one who has come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior, we know we just cannot possibly 'do' or 'create' anything better than what happens when we enter into his presence each day. God's way of making us 'right' isn't in exercising self-will and determination. It is in placing trust in his finished work - the very thing that changes our hearts once and for all. Yes, we take steps of obedience. Yes, we resist temptation and flee from it whenever we have a chance. But...we trust Jesus to give us both the strength and the ability to recognize compromise, resist sin, and come out the other side stronger.

Knowing Christ is a process that takes time. We come to know him, entering into his grace and love at the moment we trust him with our lives and say a loud yes to his invitation to come into his family. We get to know him little by little, day by day, never fully coming to an end of that understanding. There really is never a point where we have 'arrived' at the end of our sanctification (being made right in our daily choices). We are constantly taking one more step forward. If you are like me, you may take a couple backward on occasion, then move forward once again. This walk isn't always steady, although we might want it to be. We might just think we can 'do' our way into heaven's gates, but if the 'doing' is to make us feel better about our actions, it isn't the same thing as living righteously. 

Right living begins when we look into the mirror of God's Word, allowing it to convict us of sin, helping us find our way into right choices, and encouraging our faith to grow. We may not realize the value of God's 'mirror' and his 'tools' that groom our lives, but once we begin to get into his Word, we might just find the things we used to 'do' mean less than the time we spend just taking in his presence through the study of his Word. Just sayin!