Finger Pointing

Bible reading: Matthew 7:1 – 5

Step 4 - We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

Principle 4 –  Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Steps  4 and 5)

“Happy are the pure in heart.”

There have probably been times when we’ve avoided our own wrongs and problems by pointing the finger at someone else. We may be out of touch with our internal affairs because we are still blaming others for our moral choices. Or perhaps we avoid examining ourselves by making a moral inventory of all the people around us.

When God asked Adam and Eve about their sin, they both pointed the finger at someone else. “’Have you eaten the fruit from the tree I warned you about?’ ‘Yes,’ Adam admitted, ‘but it was the woman you gave me who brought me some; and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘How could you do such a thing?’ ‘The serpent tricked me,’ she replied” (Genesis 3:11 – 13) It seems to be human nature to blame others as a first line of defense.

We also may avoid our own problems by evaluating and criticizing the lives of others. Jesus tells us, “And why worry about a speck in the eye of a brother when you have a board in your own?… Hypocrite! First get rid of the board. Then you can see to help your brother” (Matthew 7:3, 5).

While doing this step, we must constantly remind ourselves that this is a season of self-examination. We must guard against drifting off into blaming and examining the lives of others. There will be time in the future for helping others after we’ve taken responsibility for our own lives.

Our inventory should turn our focus from what others have done to what we can do.

https://www.facebook.com/CRPerryton?ref=hl