Luke 5:31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.

Did your mother hand you medicine and say to you “It’s good for what ails you.” Yes? Me too! All I understood at that moment was that I felt bad and I wanted to feel better. I did not know what ailed me, I didn’t care, I just wanted to be cured. The truth is, that sums up my whole life before Christ became the Lord of my life.

I’ve spent many years trying to discover what was ailing me. I thought that if I could understand what was wrong with me, then I could take another dose if I started to relapse. It never occurred to me that Jesus was like a polio shot, one and done. I had bought into a false teaching about backsliders. The fear mongers had whispered into my ears.

Ever wonder how that slow stiff mummy wrapped in binding cloth ever caught anyone in those horror films? They keep looking back at the cause of their fear rather than the clear path to safety. It is so obvious in those films it seems funny, yet we do the same thing to ourselves in this life we live.

How am I ever going to get out of ……… ? You fill in the blanks. We are all up against something that keeps us from being all that God has promised us in Christ. I don’t know your situation and I will not share mine. In truth what ails us isn’t the problem. We have taken the Rx and have not discovered what that is in us, Christ in us, that changes our situation.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you….

Focus on the cure, not the ailment.

John 10:37-38 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

I have tried to express an idea for a week now and have failed to get the point across. The essence of the thought is found here in John 19:38. Jesus is perfect in word and deed. I am not.

I am not what I do. I am not what I say. If I get anything right by obedience of faith, praise God not me. If I fail, know that I am man, fallible yet forgiven, do not see that as God’s failing, it is mine and mine alone to own.

The world loves to scream hypocrite. That is a nasty word. No one wants to think of themselves as a hypocrite not even criminals. They lie cheat and steal but they are not hypocrites, they are true to what they are, criminals who act like criminals. Christians on the other hand, now that is another matter. We carry the cross of Christ, we carry His name, more is expected of us.

Psalm 4:6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

That is a heartfelt prayer and God will honor it, because that is also His will. But will the many recognize His light and His countenance? That is not within my control. I can only own my own failings and hope that my honesty will sway opinion away from hypocrisy.

I am not perfect.

I am forgiven.