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.

Jesus 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 require ourselves to live by these judgments 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.  You’ve seen it in marriages – right?

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.