I grew up in a tidy home. My mom stayed on top of all the household chores and things were almost always in their proper place. We also had a fairly calm home with not a ton of activity or children in & out so that helped.
Whenever I was asked to clean up, I never seemed to be able to get it all together to her standard. Despite my best efforts, the kitchen was still messy, the bathroom still dirty, or my room still cluttered after I was done ‘cleaning’. And that was a legit analysis. My mom didn’t have super high standards, it’s just that my 5-year-old self lacked the capacity to properly clean things as she wanted them.
On my best day I still missed the mark. But she realized that and never ridiculed.
The same is true with God’s standard for our sin. On our best days we fall short. Despite our best efforts we’re not able to meet the expectation God has for us on our own.
How many times have you tried to ‘be good’ for the day and shortly after your feet hit the floor (or sometimes before), you have already sinned in your mind or with your body? It doesn’t take much does it?
The point of the first principle of “Woe is Me” is to acknowledge that we’re powerless on our own to fix our issues of pornography & lust. We lack the capacity for the kind of good to have sustained abstinence from sin in any area, let alone one that has this vice-like grip on our eyes, thoughts, mind, and body.
We need God’s help!!
And Jesus is the answer!
His perfect life & sacrifice meets the standard for sin God has.
And our faith in Him affixes His righteousness to us whereby we can enjoy the spoils of victory over sin due not to our own actions but those of Jesus!
How incredible?!
Let’s look at the washing of Jesus’s feet in Luke 7.
For today dwell on the first part of what must have been the woman’s thought process. She knew how far she fell short of God’s standard for a sinless life.
Recognize how far YOU fall short of God’s standard for a sinless life.
Even on your best day you fall short.
Far short.
You are a sinner who can only yield a life filled with the results of sin. A life filled with those harmful and deadly effects of sin and nothing else.
But God . . .
Thanks be to Jesus for His sacrifice and today might we recognize how far short we fall without Him!
Thoughts to Pray/Journal:
- In what ways do you fail to acknowledge or recognize how far you fall short of God’s standard for life?
- What does it mean to you that Jesus bridges the gap for YOU? What has that looked like in your life?
Reading: