I am often reminded of my unworthiness. Sometimes I see it myself and beat myself up. Other times I am told about my failures, time and time again. And the problem with that is not that I was a failure, but that the reminder is given with such glee and joy. The purpose of the reminder is to drag me down and to destroy me.
When God reminds me of my failures, and inadequacies, it is for an entirely different reason. It is to encourage me to improve. It is to make me want to do better. God’s reminders are from love not from hostility. That makes all the difference in the world.
You can come at this from different directions but they should all start with I Corinthians 13. For those who missed that Sunday School class, it is the love chapter. Here is is from the NASB:
(1Co 13:4-8a NAS77) Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...Some of the words that might apply are rebuke, correct and reprove. They all have to do with pointing out errors but they are to be guided by the love described in I Corinthians. They have a purpose: Not to tear down but to build up.
Scripture does that for me. I am aware of my unworthiness before God. When I meditate on His attributes there is no other way to come to it, but as I read verses describing those attributes I come across the statement that God is love. Being unworthy is not the issue. That is a given. The other side of that coin is I am worthy of God’s love and worth Jesus dying for. What an uplifting way to look at my failures.
homo unius libri
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