Assumed Faith

Matthew 3:7-9  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father; for i tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.’

Since roughly junior high, I have struggled with being self-righteous. It peaked right about Junior year of high school, but honestly, it's still an easy slump for me to fall into if I don’t actively repent. The funny thing about me is that I wasn’t even that “good”.  I guess in my mind there was one thing that mattered most, (it was high school people- the one thing was sex) and well, I wasn’t doing that one thing, so I could assume I was better than anyone who was… you know… sinning. Beyond that, I grew up in church and doing the “right thing” or the “nice thing” was generally the choice that felt more natural to me, so I guess at that age it was hard for me to see how much I needed forgiveness. And, OF COURSE, I did all these good deeds and a whole lot of judging in Jesus name, because… well… that’s what good Christians do. (insert my sarcastic smile)

Jump forward to today.  I have learned over the years that recognizing my need for a Savior takes work. I have to spend time with God, and allow myself to feel the weight of all the sin in my life. And I have to repent.  There is something that shifts in my heart when I take the time to recognize the areas in my life that do not reflect Jesus (there are SO MANY) and truly decide that I want to surrender those areas to Jesus and allow him to change my heart and my actions. If I don’t take time specifically to do this, then I tend to get caught up in going through the “christian” motions. If you will: I go to the baptism simply because it seems like that's what I should do.

But John the Baptist tells the Pharisees and Sadducees  “bear fruit in keeping with repentance”. Wise words for a self-righteous group. They assume their faith because of their family, their upbringing, their education, their actions, etc. But, repentance comes from the heart.  If you are anything like me, you may need to take some time this week and allow yourself to feel the weight of your sin. You do have sin! Take some time to search your heart and your actions and find even just one thing you want to surrender to God and turn away from. Repent. Decide you are done acting or thinking or being that way. Hand that part of your sinful (yes sinful) heart to HIm and allow Him to bear fruit in your life through your repentance and surrender.

The Pharisees and Sadducees assumed their faith based on outward factors. Many of us do the same without realizing it. The way out of that is repentance.  Jesus does the rest. Start today.

B