December 22

“That which all the reproaches and accusations of [Job’s] friends had failed to do, one sight of God accomplished in a moment...He saw the Lord, but he also saw himself, as he was in the Lord’s presence, and all his self-righteousness turned into filthy rags in an instant.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 12/13

We can spend our whole lives examining ourselves and finding our faults and never change.  Likewise, we can spend our whole lives seeking to know God and never change.  Now I understand just what it means to come into God’s presence.  It’s not just finding out about Him.  It’s not even desiring to know Him.  And just confessing our sins does not put us in God’s presence.  Far too often we confess our sins and claim to be sorry about them for the wrong reason.  What we want is for God to “make us look good.”  It looks humble enough on the outside, but that is what self-righteousness is all about--looking good.  It has nothing to do with being good.  Only the humble or humbled can stand in God’s presence.  When Jesus admonished the rich, young ruler to sell all he possessed this is what He was requiring.  As long as we depend on anything other than God Himself, our motive will be to glorify self.  To come into God’s presence means we must come empty-handed.  We must!  Or else our hands are not free to pick up His righteousness and all that He desires to give us through it.

“He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.”  Luke 1:51-53