3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! (Psalm 141:3)
You ever try to white knuckle your behavior? How did that work out for you? Following Christ gets a bad wrap mostly because it is misinterpreted as rugged individualism. We wrongly believe that our faith rests on our strength, even while saying that it does not.
“If I just believe a little more, try a little harder, I can conquer this life.”
This is utterly ridiculous. In fact, our ability is so worthless that our God came down to us, died a horrific death, and raised himself to life in order to show us that we cannot will ourselves to a better life. Our faith is a bit of a paradox with this. Yes, we are not to be passive, we are to work at developing our faith. Yet, our faith and behavior doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with ourselves. We see in this Psalm that the author is asking God to do the work. Remember, this is the same guy (David) who was said to be a spiritual juggernaut, yet still committed adultery and had someone killed to cover it up. He couldn’t will himself to follow. With God’s movement, these dark corners of sin became shining moments of grace that has helped serve as reminders for countless of us sinning saints.
Today, don’t buy into the idea that you are the master of your faith. Cling tightly to Jesus in your weakness, for even when you feel strong, you are not. Sin no longer has dominion, in your brokenness you are whole. Submit your weakness to the One true strength.
Matt simon blog 