Nobody likes a self-righteous person. Nobody likes those people who always think they’re better than everybody else. Nobody likes those people who always try to one-up others. But, if you think about it, you’ve probably acted in a self-righteous way at some point in your life. There’s probably been a time when you’ve believed you were better, smarter, or stronger compared to someone else, whether you verbalized that thought or not. There’s likely been an instance where you did something to one-up another person. We don’t like self-righteous people (and the self-righteous side of ourselves!) because we know that nobody is altogether righteous and nobody is really more righteous than somebody else. Everybody sins! There’s only one Person who truly is more righteous than anybody else, but He never puts us down because of it-
We know very well what impatience is because we live in a culture of instant gratification. We get impatient when the driver in front of us isn’t paying attention to the traffic light. We get impatient when the person before us in the grocery store check-out line has way more than the ten-item limit. We even get impatient when our internet takes more than a couple seconds to load something! This impatience often leads to us getting angry and irritated. That’s why the Bible sometimes describes patience as being “slow to anger.”
Thankfully, our God is never impatient with us. He is always patient and always slow to anger towards His children-
I love being “in the know.” I love knowing what’s going to happen ahead of time so I can be prepared for what’s ahead. I don’t like feeling like I don’t understand something. Maybe you’re the same way? Our culture is obsessed with instant knowledge. When you want to know what the weather will be like this afternoon, you look at your phone’s weather app. When you want to know what’s going on in your friends’ lives, you go on Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. When you want to know the average lifespan of a chicken, you Google it (it’s five to eight years, by the way).[1] Unfortunately, we don’t know everything. We can’t! And we can never be fully prepared for the future because we don’t know what the future truly holds. But guess who does know everything, including our futures? God!
Have you ever wished you could be in two places at once? Or have you wished you could have a clone of yourself to do all the hard things in your life while you go do the fun things? While your clone is taking college finals, going to work, or deep cleaning your house, you could be hiking the Grand Canyon, backpacking across Europe, or walking along the Great Wall of China! Unfortunately, we don’t have clones, and we are restricted to one body in one place. But we have a God who has no such restrictions-
You can do anything you put your mind to! You can do anything if you just believe in yourself!
You’ve probably heard these phrases or similar ones thrown around in our culture. While they seem motivating and encouraging on the surface, they are actually not true! I can’t stop a speeding train if I just put my mind to it. I can’t fly or have super speed if I just believe in myself. I can’t do these things because I don’t have the power to do them. Human beings have limited power. But there is Someone who has unlimited power – God.