Wretched, poor, blind and pitiful

This world is full of many different things and many different people.

There are many things I like (hiking, running, coffee, doughnuts, etc) but there are also many things that I don’t like (Pepsi, sticky tables, fingers on a chalkboard, and more).

If we are honest, then we must admit that at times there are people we like and people that we don’t like as well. We are drawn to some people and push back from others.

Why is that? 

Some of it is personality, some of it is comfort, and some of it is judgment and prejudice. Some of our liking and disliking is not moral or immoral, it is just that we are drawn to some people more than others. Some of it however has to do with the very nature of our hearts.

Sometimes we are drawn to people because of the fruits of their life that reflect God and His perfect love. Sometimes we are drawn to people because of things we admire in them that we are weak in.

Sometimes we are appalled at people because of their fruits of selfishness and sinful deeds. Sometimes we push back from people because of our own judgmental hearts and prejudices.

But pushing back from people because of our judgmentalism or because of their sinful choices is not the way of the Christian. This is not the call of God. This is not the call of perfect love.

God has seen us in our wretched state of discontent, selfishness, sin-defeated, judgmental egotism and personal promotion. And in spite of the fact that He has seen our sinfulness, He has loved us. And the love He has for us is an everlasting love. His love towards us is a love of grace in the face of wickedness, mercy in midst of damnable behaviors and of sanctifying truth available in spite of our stubborn pride and rebellion.

And the love that God has for us in the midst of our wretched, poor, blind, pitiful and naked state, is a love that is filled with grief, heartache and compassion. His love for us is a love that has weeped over us. God’s love for us has revealed His heart and given of Himself time and again in spite of our hardened responses of rejection, spitefulness and ingratitude. God has loved us in the midst of our “unloveableness”.

God calls us from the pitiful places we have made for ourselves. He calls us to come out of our prisons and to be free from the chains we have chosen and agreed to by our beliefs and behaviors. God says, “Come unto me…”

And this love that God has for us, is the same love that He will put in us for our neighbor. It is the same perfect love that He will fill our hearts with even for the people around us. We find ourselves liking some people and despising others. This happens when we operate according to the sinful nature and the wretched state that we are in of our own efforts at righteousness. However if we will let the love of God transform us and fill us, then those we once were disgusted with, we may now find ourselves drawn to. With the love of God permeating every part of our heart we may find deep wells of compassion and a burden for the very people we once judged. If we will let the Lord forgive us, cleanse us and deliver us from our pitiful estate, we will then have His love poured out into our heart by the Holy Spirit He has given us. And with that love in our hearts, the wretched, poor, blind, pitiful and naked estate of the people around us will so seize our hearts that we can do nothing but pray for their souls and for the very power that raised Jesus from the dead to be at work in them (and us!) for transformation, for hope and for God’s glory.

The next time you take note of someone that you think you don’t like…think about this: “Jesus died for them”. Remember this: “Apart from the Lord, I am lost, wretched, poor, pitiful, blind, naked and damned; with Christ as my Savior, I am found, redeemed, valuable, filled with His presence, alive with His love and I pray the same thing for this person before me.”

Remember, that apart from Christ, you and I are nothing. And we are called not to judge but to share the gospel and love our neighbor as ourselves. If we will humble ourselves and repent of our own wicked ways, God can save and redeem us and once He has done that, then God can use us to be a part of His plan of redemption in the life of persons you once spurned. Isn’t it beautiful that God can take our ashes and make something beautiful!