I had just returned from a weekend of serving ladies, speaking into their hearts the words that I felt the Lord had given me for them. My pre-event prayers are always replete with pleas for Jesus to hide me behind the cross so all the audience sees is Him when I speak. Many ladies told me how touched they were by the messages. There were tears and hugs. One precious lady indicated by her upraised hand during prayer time that she had asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. I came away from the weekend feeling the smiling nod of God on the accomplished work that He had called me to do last weekend.
Then, I read this:
The Bible tells us that all of our righteousness, including the very best things we ever do, are so permeated with sin and selfishness that they are like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isa. 64:6). Anne Graham Lotz from Joy of My Heart daily devotion ~ March 30, 2015
“…our righteousness is like filthy rags….” (Isaiah 64:6)
I’ve heard the bit from Isaiah 64:6 all my life, yet on Monday it nearly put me on the floor. I supposed I had never really personalized it. I had never considered what things I might try to offer to gain my own righteousness.
“The very best things we ever do….” I was suddenly confronted with the ugly fact that my service as a speaker, the Bible studies and blog posts that I write, could be things that I might just be hanging my hat on for a few ‘atta girl’ slaps on the back from God. Not for my salvation, but for my worth in God’s eyes. Oh my!
“The very best things we ever do are so permeated with sin and selfishness….” It hit me like a ton of bricks. Even the very things that I do FOR God likely have hidden selfishness and sin within them.
Lord, help me! Create in me a clean heart, O God.
As one who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, the beauty of Holy Week, and of Jesus’ death on the cross, is that all my filthy rags now belong to Jesus, and all of His righteousness (right standing) before God belongs to me. It is known as ‘The Great Exchange’. That doesn’t mean there are no wrong motives in my heart. There may be, and it is up to me to allow the Holy Spirit to search those out. It is up to me to confess those wrong motives, repent of them, and allow them to be replaced with right motives.
Having Jesus’ right standing before God means that when God looks at me, He does not see my filthy rags. He sees only Jesus’ blood covering my sin and selfish motives.
Have you traded your sin-stained rags for the righteousness of Jesus?
The recent release by Mercy Me entitled ‘Flawless’ seems a fitting way to end this post.
