Setting our Sights

In life we quite often tend to focus too much on the negative. I find that when I work with kids, all too often I’m correcting them to much and forgetting to praise them enough. But I also see this is my own life. I focus too much on hating evil and the sin in my life that I don’t focus on righteousness and my righteous savior. Hebrews 12:2 says Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Now you may be thinking “so what’s the difference between focusing on staying away for sin, and focusing on righteousness?” And indeed I am not trying to make a big doctrine out of this (as I am so known to do). And I am certainly not trying to say that there is no place for focusing on the negative and our sin problem. Anyone who’s ever worked with kids knows that no matter how much praise you give a child, there still remains those times when a stern word of discipline is needed. So we also need to be aware of the sin in our own lives. But in so doing, we must remember that it is impossible to take off wickedness, without putting on righteousness. I think far too often our attempts to live a holy, set apart life end up being our attempts to overcome sin on our own. And as I’m sure we can all testify to, that doesn’t work so well. So again, my point is not that we should be aware of sin in our lives, but that only through God can we have righteousness. Because God is righteousness. Any attempts to put on our own form of righteousness will be futile.