“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:23)
Do you ever have those times when you can’t believe what you just said, or worse yet, what you just did? Sure you have.
We all know there’s no such thing as a perfect Christian, but I hate those looks I get from other believers when they realize I’m not as perfect as they are. I wonder sometimes if they know how self-righteous they appear when they look down their noses at me.
But don’t lose heart. Jesus surrounded himself with people just like you and me. They were great men and women of God who accomplished much for the Lord in their lifetimes; yet they said and did some pretty stupid things.
Take Peter, for example. Peter preached with boldness, never appearing to be ashamed of the Gospel. Yet, just a few weeks before one of his greatest sermons, he was so afraid for his life that he wouldn’t even admit to knowing Jesus. “Woman, I do not know him,” he once said to a servant who recognized him as one of Jesus’ disciples. (Luke 22:57)
The Apostle John was no different. It’s hard to believe that he once looked God right in the eye on behalf of his brother and him and said, “Grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in your glory”. God looked back at him through the eyes of Jesus and said, “You do not know what you ask”. (Mark 10:37-38)
We all know how stupid John probably felt. But Jesus didn’t give up on him. He allowed him to grow from his mistakes. In fact, John is later described in the Bible as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
There’s someone else Jesus loved dearly: John the Baptist. In fact, He once said of him, “For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.” (Luke 7:28)
The irony is John the Baptist was about as weird as they come. He was a Nazarite, a religious sect, which insisted that its members avoid cutting their hair and fingernails, or touching a dead body. On top of it all, the Bible records that John the Baptist wore clothes made from camel’s hair and lived largely off of the land, eating locusts and wild honey. I used to think of him when I look at one of my daughter’s former boyfriends (and both of his earrings).
The truth is the Bible is full of characters that said and did some foolish things from time to time, but in the end, their faith in Christ won out.
So keep your chin up. God’s love for us will always extend beyond the stupid, crazy things we say and do. Don’t give up on God because his word promises that He’ll never give up on us. At least that’s what I believe the psalmist meant when he said, “I have been young, and now am old yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.” (Psalms 37:25)
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