Not good enough

Are you a good person? That is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself and an interesting question to ask others. One thing most non-believers and believers have in common is they both will or at least will want to say yes, they are a good person. However on this subject there is one thing that both absolutely have in common and that is neither the Christian nor the non-believer are  good, when you define good by God’s standards. Today I am going to let you non-believers off the hook so if you don’t call yourself a Christian you can stop reading this and go back to whatever you were doing before you clicked on this link. If you do call yourself a Christian consider the rest of this blog very carefully. I will pick on myself as not to offend anyone today. When I was not a believer I did consider myself to be a good person. I was better than those around me, we will just leave it at that. Okay to be more specific, I didn’t drink but I tried it and bought it for my friends. I didn’t smoke, but I chewed tobacco for over twenty years. Was almost never late for my curfew but I drove over 100 miles an hour to make it on time. I was never physically mean to anyone yet made fun of almost everyone behind their backs. Yet I very much considered myself to be a good person.

Now here is where this all gets interesting since becoming a Christian I have stopped chewing, my drink of choice is water, I could never even dream of staying up past 12:30, I love people and the biggest part of my job is helping them and I have not uttered a cuss word in I don’t know how long. So by most standards I am much better person now since becoming a Christian. Who knows with this resume I could even have made it to “good person” status. Believe it or not as I have grown in Christ I have finally come to understand that I am by no means a good person. The more I grow in Christ the worse I realize not only I was, but I am even worse now. Am I becoming a bad person by living the Christian life? No by reading the Bible and through study and prayer I am learning more and more about the holiness of God and thus His standards and His definition of good. Please consider the end of today’s blog very carefully. As you grow in your Christian walk there are sins in your life that will and should become less and less, however for each sin that is laid to rest you should become aware of at least three more that need to be gotten rid of. Back to my original question today if you or anyone says yes indeed I am a good person perhaps some time in God’s word is in order. For me by the world’s standard, yes I am a better person but by God’s standards I am still a depraved, sinful, rotten to the core human who thankfully God still loves and by His grace and the blood of Jesus has been saved. Praise God for that.