New Morning Mercies #345

It is a grace to be willing to listen to and consider criticism. It takes grace to quiet the mind and settle the heart to hear.

We are not naturally open to criticism. Most of us don’t like to be confronted. It is natural for us to rise to our own defenses when we are questioned. It is natural for us to work to convince ourselves and others that we are righteous. When questioned, it is natural for us to get out our catalogs of righteousness as evidence to convince others that they must have misjudged or misunderstood us. It is natural for us to be more focused on and concerned about the sin of others than our own. It is natural for us to confront others with things that we excuse in ourselves. It is natural for us to see our wrongs as less than wrong. It is natural for us to swindle ourselves into believing that we are far more righteous than we really are. For sinners, self-righteousness is more natural than humility.

In short, it is more natural for us to have hard hearts that are resistant to change than hearts that are open, humble, and crying out for change. So if you are open to loving confrontation, if you are ready to admit your sin, if you are thankful for those who have loved you enough to help you see what you would not see on your own, and if you are ready to confess and seek forgiveness, you know that you have been visited by the grace of Jesus, because none of these attitudes is natural for us apart from divine intervention.

It takes powerful redeeming grace to remove the hearts of stone from us and replace them with hearts of flesh—hearts that are sensitive to sin, sensitive to the grace of conviction, sensitive to the need for change, and resting in the forgiveness that is found only in Jesus. It takes grace that guarantees that the blood of Jesus has covered everything about us that could ever be known or exposed to give us the courage to look at ourselves in the searching mirror of the Word of God. It takes grace for us to let go of excuses, rationalizations, self-atoning arguments, and our tendency to shift the blame to others. It takes grace for us to be able to stand as sinners before a holy God and admit that there are ways in which we are still rebels against his lordship and his commands.

Confession is not intuitive for sinners. Humility is not our natural first response. Love of God more than love of self is not a first instinct. The glory of God isn’t naturally the core motivator of what we do and say. So if you are willing to say, “God, show me my heart,” and willing to speak these words, “Please forgive me,” you know that you have been showered with amazing grace—grace that has already changed your heart and grace that promises more change to come.

For further study and encouragement: Psalm 51