{"id":71826,"date":"2024-11-21T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/?p=71826"},"modified":"2024-11-15T10:40:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T15:40:23","slug":"making-room-for-the-self-righteous-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/making-room-for-the-self-righteous-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Room for the Self-Righteous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 23:25-28, Luke 18:9-14, Romans 2:1-11, Romans 3:9-23<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a teenager I was a pretty lousy prodigal. The youngest of three daughters, I had the benefit of watching my sisters\u2019 rebellious moments backfire, and so I learned quickly that the best way to stay in my parents\u2019 good graces was to toe the line. Add to that the fact that we lived at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, surrounded by structure, discipline, and people who knew how to do things right. Early on, I decided I wanted to be like them. I applied that same logic to my young Christian faith, thinking that if I lived \u201crightly,\u201d all my dreams would go just as I\u2019d planned. I even claimed Scripture to back me up! (See Proverbs 16:3.) Instead, my self-righteousness grew like a cancer, slow and undetected, hidden by a life focused on pleasing others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is so much irony in self-righteousness because it is exactly the self-righteous who don\u2019t think they have a problem. That\u2019s why it can be a toxic sin, one that creeps into our lives without our awareness. Today, I find it most apparent in my marriage. When I\u2019m having a bad day, God forbid my husband sneeze too loudly, miss a button on his shirt, or accidentally leave the stove on because I\u2019m quick to point out or dwell on his minor flaws while ignoring the far bigger issue: my critical spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the parable of the prodigal son, the older brother starts a long argument with his father. He was angry and, legally speaking, he probably had a valid case against his younger brother. But followed to the root, his anger was really deep-seated resentment. He tells his father, \u201cI have been slaving many years for you\u201d (Luke 15:29). His angry confession reveals that all along he\u2019d felt bitter about the work his father had asked him to do. He mentions that he\u2019d never had a party thrown in his honor. Deep down, he felt he deserved one, along with the accolades that would surely come with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-righteousness blocks our ability to find joy in the redemption of others. When I\u2019m being self-righteous, I\u2019m far better at calling other people names than I am at naming my own sin. Reading the parable of the prodigal son has never been fun for me because I know I\u2019m the older brother\u2014heart hardened and locked up tight\u2014and I would much rather be the younger brother, who knows he\u2019s in desperate need of forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In church circles, people often talk about the father running out to meet his son. I\u2019ve been taught that men in that culture didn\u2019t run; they never picked up their robes, exposing their ankles. What the father did was unabashedly and radically loving. But something I\u2019ve never noticed before was that he didn\u2019t stop there\u2014he didn\u2019t just run out to greet the son who\u2019d been lost and gone astray. The father also sought out his self-righteous son; he was aware that his eldest was missing from the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, even for self-righteous people like me. Out of His abundant love, the Father comes after us too. There is room for all of us at His table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Claire Gibson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 23:25-28, Luke 18:9-14, Romans 2:1-11, Romans 3:9-23 As a teenager I was a pretty lousy prodigal. The youngest of three daughters, I had the benefit of watching my sisters\u2019 rebellious moments backfire, and so I learned quickly that the best way to stay in my parents\u2019 good graces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":71638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-makingroom24"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71656],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"MAKING ROOM FOR THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS<\/b>

\r\nby Claire Gibson<\/i>

\r\n

As a teenager I was a pretty lousy prodigal. The youngest of three daughters, I had the benefit of watching my sisters\u2019 rebellious moments backfire, and so I learned quickly that the best way to stay in my parents\u2019 good graces was to toe the line. Add to that the fact that we lived at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, surrounded by structure, discipline, and people who knew how to do things right. Early on, I decided I wanted to be like them. I applied that same logic to my young Christian faith, thinking that if I lived \u201crightly,\u201d all my dreams would go just as I\u2019d planned. I even claimed Scripture to back me up! (See Proverbs 16:3.) Instead, my self-righteousness grew like a cancer, slow and undetected, hidden by a life focused on pleasing others.<\/p>
\r\n

There is so much irony in self-righteousness because it is exactly the self-righteous who don\u2019t think they have a problem. That\u2019s why it can be a toxic sin, one that creeps into our lives without our awareness. Today, I find it most apparent in my marriage. When I\u2019m having a bad day, God forbid my husband sneeze too loudly, miss a button on his shirt, or accidentally leave the stove on because I\u2019m quick to point out or dwell on his minor flaws while ignoring the far bigger issue: my critical spirit.<\/p>
\r\n

In the parable of the prodigal son, the older brother starts a long argument with his father. He was angry and, legally speaking, he probably had a valid case against his younger brother. But followed to the root, his anger was really deep-seated resentment. He tells his father, \u201cI have been slaving many years for you\u201d (Luke 15:29). His angry confession reveals that all along he\u2019d felt bitter about the work his father had asked him to do. He mentions that he\u2019d never had a party thrown in his honor. Deep down, he felt he deserved one, along with the accolades that would surely come with it.<\/p>
\r\n

Self-righteousness blocks our ability to find joy in the redemption of others. When I\u2019m being self-righteous, I\u2019m far better at calling other people names than I am at naming my own sin. Reading the parable of the prodigal son has never been fun for me because I know I\u2019m the older brother\u2014heart hardened and locked up tight\u2014and I would much rather be the younger brother, who knows he\u2019s in desperate need of forgiveness.<\/p>
\r\n

In church circles, people often talk about the father running out to meet his son. I\u2019ve been taught that men in that culture didn\u2019t run; they never picked up their robes, exposing their ankles. What the father did was unabashedly and radically loving. But something I\u2019ve never noticed before was that he didn\u2019t stop there\u2014he didn\u2019t just run out to greet the son who\u2019d been lost and gone astray. The father also sought out his self-righteous son; he was aware that his eldest was missing from the party.<\/p>
\r\n

There is hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, even for self-righteous people like me. Out of His abundant love, the Father comes after us too. There is room for all of us at His table.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"4","scripture":"Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 23:25-28, Luke 18:9-14, Romans 2:1-11, Romans 3:9-23","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}