April 23, 2025 Devo

Are you ever just astounded by how people can justify attitudes and actions that are so ungodly? Sometimes I watch people, and it is beyond me how they can’t see how mean they’re being, or selfish they’re acting, or how wrong what they’re doing is. It is so obvious that you would think that they would at least feel guilty or bad about it. But they often don’t. And I don’t understand it.
At least, I don’t understand it until God reveals something to me about my own life. That’s when I realize that my attitudes aren’t always of the God-honoring variety. Or He makes me hear something I said, and I realize how heartlessly or judgmentally I said it. Or I’m thinking some thought, and the Holy Spirit nudges me and says, “Is THAT the kind of thought that a godly pastor ought to have?”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that I can easily become blind to ME. I can ignore my bad attitudes. I can justify my bad behavior. I can come up with good reasons why I don’t always act with godly character. Like David says in our passage today, I flatter myself too much to see the crud in me. I think too highly of myself to pay much attention to the flaws or the cracks in my well-varnished spirituality. Those aren’t my fault, you see. My shortcomings are due to the people I have to deal with. Yeah, right.
Blaming, deflecting, and justifying don’t change reality. The truth is that I need the purifying, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit every day of my life. Covering up my faults only embeds them deeper into my life. Turning a blind eye to my failures and sins only allows them to consume more of who I am. Not owning toxic attitudes and “stinking thinking” keeps me living a self-deceptive life and one that is far less than the life God has called me to live. David was right. Sinners DO flatter themselves too much. And I’ll only live differently when I admit that I am one of them.
Take a bit of a personal inventory today. Spend a moment or two with God, and let Him ask you a few hard questions about your own recent attitudes and actions. If you feel yourself getting a bit uncomfortable or defensive, those are clues you need to dig deeper. It takes rigorous honesty to live a godly life. You will never overcome what you’re not willing to admit is there. Because it’s that TRUTH, as painful as it may be to admit, that sets you free. That’s God’s Word for you today.