“All” — includes me

In context of trying to ‘fix’ people, a friend once said, “It is much easier to make Scrabble words for the other players.”

How true. I can more easily see the faults of others and am more apt to give advice (wanted or not) to them than I am willing to look at my own sins. This is pride. God speaks to me about it in what Spurgeon writes in today’s devotional reading about this verse . . . 

But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. (Ezekiel 3:7)

All the house of Israel; Spurgeon said there were no exceptions. God’s chosen people are described as all this way, even the best of them. But he does not point fingers. If this is true of Israel, then it is also true of the entire human race, including himself and including me.

The first charge is hardness of forehead. These words mean a stiff-necked impudence, having little or no godly shame for sin and being bold about doing evil. This is a harsh condemnation.

Before my conversion I could sin and feel no sense of violating any moral code. If told that I was guilty, I remained proud. I can’t remember ever admitting sin and certainly had no inward humiliation or grief about it. I even went to church on occasion and acted as if I was praying to God and praising Him. Spurgeon says this is a brazen-faced attitude of the worst kind! Impudence.

Yet since my new birth I cannot claim innocence. I have doubted God, complained without thinking about grace and His sovereign care, been lazy and self-seeking in worship, even sinned without getting on my own case or grieving over it. Again, it is easier to ‘fix’ others. This focus is a mere and most impudent diversion.

The second charge is hardheartedness. I cannot plead innocence here either. Before Jesus came into my life, my heart was like stone. Yet even now, with a new heart where Jesus lives given to me by grace, many of my former stubborn attitudes still lurk.

God has reminded me this week that I am not affected by the death of Jesus as I ought to be. Hours go by when I do not even think about Him. Sometimes I care nothing about the sinful state of others or the wickedness of the world we live in. At times, I lightly pass over God’s chastening and my own failures. He bids me to do His will and I agree, but then ignore Him and do my own thing. This is hardness of heart.

As Spurgeon says, such a disease is curable. I know that I cannot save myself. I also know that the blood of Christ is the universal solvent. He can soften my hardness and turn my attention from fixing others to seeing my own need for purification and wholeness.

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Father, it is easy to criticize others, to focus on their sin instead of my own. It is also easy to write these words, say a prayer, and go into the day the same as usual. I’m tired of the usual — just as You must be tired of my stubborn and unyielding heart. I confess these things to You, knowing that You alone forgive sin and change lives. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Help me act like it. Help me be more like Jesus and less like my old self — and may You be glorified.