Prepare Your Heart To Talk To God

by Robert Pedersen

 

This next belief may surprise you.

It’s very similar to “I know exactly what I must do to be
accepted by God”.

It is a belief that could be stated:

“I’m saved, sealed and waiting for delivery.”

When you are certain of your salvation you are no longer plagued
with the doubts that are the constant companion to those seeking
God’s acceptance.

Christ was a great example of a human being with certainty around
his position with God.

When you have this confidence you’re in and you know you’re in!

So, How could you have any problem communicating with God if
you’re already saved?

There’s an attitude that tends to creep in when we’re certain of
our eternal salvation.

It’s called self righteousness.

The reason it’s called self righteousness is because there’s judgment that goes along with the attitude.

Judgment is a polar opinion formed after consideration.  Polar just means that it’s positive or negative – right or wrong.

Typically what happens is we develop opinions about what makes us right.  These judgments become our righteousness.  We live by them and expect others to live by them as well.

When you feel so convinced of your own rightness there is no
longer a need for communication.

In fact, communication is effectively shut down.

If you have ever attempted to help or advise someone who didn’t
think they needed your input, you understand what I’m speaking
of.

They’re not going to hear you because they know best.  They have
all the answers and don’t need anything from you.

Jesus met with that type of thinking in his day:

 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him
 eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked
 his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and
 ’sinners’?”
 On hearing this, Jesus said to them:

 “It is not the
 healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come
 to call the righteous, but sinners.”
 Mark 2:16-17 (NIV)

Jesus couldn’t help the righteous scribes and Pharisees – not because of His inability but because of their self-righteousness.  They simply knew best and wouldn’t accept Jesus.

This attitude will find fault with Christ himself!

This belief is a spiritual plateau.  There’s no more allowance
for the possibility of growth.

The feeling is “I have arrived and there’s nothing more to do or
be”.

At this stage your mantra may be “Keep doing what you’re doing”.

“Keep on keeping on” is another way of saying the same thing.

Nothing more to learn.  No greater heights to attain.  No growth
necessary.  You’ve arrived.

This is where you are in your relationship with God when self righteousness overtakes you.

This is perhaps the most subtle belief and yet the most powerful
eliminator of communication.

It is subtle because we all strive for understanding about God.
Once we gain some insight and prove it for ourselves the old
tendency to judge comes in.

Many times we feel justified in making judgments because we’ve
proven our position personally – and there we go down the self
righteous road.
Scripture reference:

Luke 18:9-14
9   To some who were confident of their own righteousness and
    looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
10  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and
    the other a tax collector.
11  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank
    you that I am not like other men– robbers, evildoers,
    adulterers– or even like this tax collector.
12  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13  “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even
    look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have
    mercy on me, a sinner.’
14  “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home
    justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be
    humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  (NIV)

Here’s a little tool:

Whenever we feel thankful that we’re not like someone else
there’s a very good chance that we’re too confident in our own
righteousness.