SOME MORE SOUL EXCAVATION

This week I've been hearing a question. It has been tugging gently at my soul every time I ponder a decision. The decisions aren't anything monumental but my motivation behind those decisions is being revealed. It's not pretty. Here's the question ~ "Do I care more about my reputation than about pleasing God?" The Lord has unearthed this idol that I wasn't aware of. The idol of reputation. When I sin, am I more concerned about what people will think of me than about offending my Lord?

This week it has been very easy for me to slide into a melancholy funk about this whole thing. But wait? The Lord has done this soul excavation. Why? Because He wants all of me. It is God who is at work in me both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. (Philippians 2) What is His good pleasure? That I may be conformed to His Son. Praise Him that He doesn't use a wrecking ball or a backhoe. It's kind of like an expert archaeologist who carefully unearths things by using different tools. Sometimes a brush, sometimes a pick. His motive is always love. And when He unearths the sin He doesn't keep it around and store it in His museum to remind Him of my offenses. No. That is not His nature.

"He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust." Psalm 103:10-14

"And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them,' He then says, 'And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'" Hebrews 10:15-17