Daily Devotional for Thursday, October 2

The Lord Weighs the Spirits

“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits,” Proverbs 16:2.

Have you ever had to rebuke a child, friend or subordinate at work? It is a real thing that sometimes people over whom we have authority do things wrong or incorrectly, and it is our place to get them pointed back in the right direction. How does that usually go? I can only speak from my personal experience, but sometimes correction goes well, and sometimes it does not. No matter how it goes, most corrections start similarly; the corrected person attempts to justify and rationalize his behavior. I do the same thing when it is my turn to be corrected.

Why do we act this way? God has graciously given us an answer to that question.  It is because our ways are clean in our own eyes! Humans can rationalize practically any behavior. This phenomenon is not new, as pushing aside blame is what Adam and Eve did when God confronted them. Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed Eve and God Himself. That is just what we do.

But we become better at being hypocrites. We generally do not have to worry about others calling out our sin because we become better at hiding it! The problem is that while we may be clean as a whistle before the world and in the eyes of others, God always knows. He knows the hidden things in our lives and the hidden things in our hearts. There is still more. Note how our actions are clean in our own eyes. Are we busy hiding our sins while steadily calling out the sins of others? Are we being like Pharisees, insisting others follow our rules while our hearts are rotten? Always remember that God knows.

JUST A THOUGHT

You can fool some of the people some of the time and some people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time (Abe Lincoln). But you can never fool God.

Wally Fry