Reading 163. New Spirit Filled Life Daily Bible (NKJV) (ODH)
What others think of us?
Proverbs 18:17
“The first in his cause seems just, but his neighbor comes and searches him.”
“His neighbor cometh and searcheth him out.”
It is easy to boast of what we are or are not, but the real question is as to what others think of us?
Would that credit us with the highest attainments in Christian living? Would they concede the reality and beauty of our characters?
After all, might not we be mistaking our ideals for our attainments, and judging ourselves by a lower standard than we apply to others?
Might not our wives and sisters, our husbands and brothers search us?
It is so much easier to plead our own cause in a meeting than to stand clear in the searching scrutiny of the home.
And if our neighbors search us, what does God think of us as the fierce light of His eyes scans us and reads our deepest secrets?
What should we do… were it’s not for the blood of Christ?
I used to hesitate once to call myself a miserable sinner, but as I know myself better, I begin to feel that it is a reasonable designation.
That is what we are by nature, though we have been made by divine grace, children, heirs, joint heirs with Christ.
Job, the righteous man confessed himself vile when God’s light revealed him.
F.B. Meyer, Our Daily Homily.