A True Measure

Proverbs 20:6, 9-10; 21:2 "Most men will proclaim every one his own gooness, but a faithful man who can find...Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord; Every man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth (weighs) the hearts."

OK, so since I can think of any practical way to start this morning, I am just going to jump in on the theological side of things. Don't let this scare you; every thing you do is a result of the theology you hold to.

God is seeking faithful servants, and He is not looking for the self-proclaimed. In these verses it is made clear that God is not satisfied with the ways in which mankind measures things. Our scales are off, and even a little of that is an abomination to our Lord. We measure things differently than God does, and only His measure is true. (OK, here's your practical example) It's like having 100 instruments in a room and tuning them all to the one next to them. They will all sound a little different. Yet if you tune each instrument to the master piano, they will all sound the same because they are not being compared to each other. God's measure is that master piano, and if we try to measure by anything else, we'll be off.

So, what do we do about this? First of all, we must repent for thinking that we are the best measure of things. Then we need to accept God's measure of things (like sin?) and learn to ask Him to reveal to us His evaluation/examination of whatever it is we are considering.

Another thing to remember is that we are not to compare ourselves to those around us. Christ is the only one we should be comparing our lives to, and when we do that, we will be more like those others who are striving for the same thing. We will be an effective part of the Body of Christ!