Integrity, Truthfulness and Straightforwardness...Honesty

My blogging is always #1, for me to process impactful things for me.  Which means reflecting on sermons that spoke to me greatly.  The sermon at Hosanna! was given by Pastor Shea last week and was nothing short of amazing.  Really, service in general was awesome!  I think I ran into every single one of my super sweet peeps from my NY trip...except for Rod.  So it was great to see everyone, cause even though it had only been two days, I already missed you freaks!  ;)  But yeah...the sermon.  We're doing a sermon series on prayer and to be honest it hasn't been insanely impactful so far (probably more to do with where I've been in the past, vs the content of the sermon).  However, last week was fan-freaking-tastic.  I LOVE sermons that make you feel a little uncomfortable in conviction, I am always open for improvement and love the challenge. 

 

Anyways, Shea talked about how prayer is "A conversation that never ends."  Just like our relationships in life, without communication, the relationship will die.  I know that this is true for me in my relationship with God.  The times that I have fallen the farthest or felt like He wasn't there for me, in all reality, it was me who wasn't reaching out in communication.  Communication in my relationships is the number one important thing to me in life.  If you haven't noticed I sort of like to talk and don't much care for superficial conversation.  There's not a more meaningful gift that someone I love can give me then their undivided attention to just talk/listen.  I think that God feels the same way about us when we set aside time to talk/listen! 

 

Now for the uncomfortable part.  Shea talked about Luke 18:9-14, which is the story of the Pharisee vs the tax collector.

 

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone 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 by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—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 all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I have read this before, but it wasn't until Shea rephrased the "pharisee vs the tax collector" piece of things.  He stated that in that day in age, that would have been the equivalency of the pope and a pimp going to God, the pope being the one who stated "thank God I'm not like..." and the pimp being the one who was humble and exclaimed "I am a sinner!"  Prayer is honesty.  We need to get rid of our pretty Christian masks and show people who we really are, and what's really going on, on the inside, because every single one of us are missing the mark.  Why do we try to pretend that all is good anyways?  God is smarter then that!  I liked that Shea said "You can't show off to God with your good behavior."  He knows us better then that!  He sees right through that superficial crap. 

In order to be healed, we have to be honest about our true identity.  We have to humble ourselves, because it's not about good behavior on the outside.  It's about becoming honest about who we really are.  Why would you want "whitewashed tombs with rotting mans bones inside?"  When we're honest, God continually washes us clean, as if it never happened. 

Being more concerned that you look like a good fancy Christian on the outside comes from not being convinced of the Father's love.  Just like when we're not convinced that we have the love/acceptance of our Earthly parents, we're driven to preform to gain acceptance.  God's not impressed by our performance, he knows our hearts.  If we cracked open your heart, what would we find?  Until we're honest, God can't do much with us, however when we're honest, God says "Absolutely!"

For this girl honesty hasn't always been easy.  I am a people pleaser and I'd rather sacrifice my true feelings and have things be "all good," then be up front and honest about how I really feel.  However, I've been working on that, and think that I've been given more opportunities to practice being honest, even when the honesty might not feel so hot.  I just HATE hurting people, just kills me, so sacrificing myself seems like the more logical option...until I've sacrificed myself so much that I've lost myself.  I also have a hard time hearing honesty in the form of criticism.  Because of my lack of confidence in myself at times, even when the message isn't "You're all bad," that's what I hear.  Again, something that I am working on.  :) 

Anyways...prayer.  It's honesty that gets God's attention.  Have a beautiful Saturday my loves!