Authenticity - Emily

What an excellent chapter! This one really gets at the core of things. Mary writes to uncover our true motives and agendas. Ouch. Love it!

Sadly, I have been 100% two-faced in seasons of my life. I am grieved to look back on those times but also drawn to praise Him even more for his redemptive work in my life. He is oh so good to us. Such a patient and loving God. I'm still such a piece of work most days :-) but a quote that a friend of mine shared with me goes something like "less important than the degree of victory is the direction we are going". Thus keeping in mind that when I fail and run to Him (instead of away) that's progress. He can work with that.

I did take the time to look up several of the scriptures that she references and found that to be helpful and insightful. Sometimes it's too easy to read through the Bible and skim over the great implications and meanings in God's Word. 2 Tim 3:1-4 really stood out to me. " But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...." God already knows the self-destructive way we are headed as people, so He calls us to be on guard for those things!

Luke 12:2 is a wonderful verse! "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known" If we know we are harboring some secret sin this can be a scary one - but how loving is God that he will not allow us to do that?! He wants to expose what's really inside so that we can confess it and draw closer to him. *Our pastors wife made the comments that we should be thankful that we aren't celebrities when God reveals junk in us. For us He can do it intimately, their junk gets spread all over the tabloids :-(

I would honestly have to say that I probably still act in some of each of the areas of hypocrisy that Mary points out. I'd like to say I don't (maybe not a blatantly as before) but that'd be a lie. Some days I am just plain amazed at how selfish I can be, how much I still have myself on the throne all day. Praise God that He won't leave me here but little by little He is making me new every day.

Lord fill us afresh with you each new day! Help us to be genuine. To desire your kind of true authenticity in our walk! Thank you Lord that you want to expose the sin in us, you're continually calling us closer to you if we will only listen and yield our lives to you.