Make Me Righteous

Too many of us are walking around dirty. Wow! Not what you expected to read this morning?  I know, I know. But it’s true. We can’t move forward in the things God is calling us to because we are stuck in mess. And before you get indignant, you should identify what mess is to you. We get tripped up thinking that one mess is bigger than another but if you are not living your best life, you are stuck in a mess. Perhaps your marriage is a mess and it takes you most of the morning to get right with your spouse. Perhaps your finances are a mess and you can’t see breakthrough anywhere. Perhaps your family is a mess and you haven’t spoken to your sister or brother in months. Perhaps you are living on the fence, hearing from God but can’t commit to the life He is calling you to. Pick your mess!  

This morning the words to William Murphy’s song “Make Me Righteous” keeps echoing in my head. The lyrics say “Make me righteous before you make me holy for You are holy. Purify me in your presence. Holy, Holy Lord”. This song celebrates the holiness of God and our desire to be righteous and pure in His sight. Is that your prayer today? To be one that God looks upon with joy because you are striving for righteousness? God sends words of encouragement and life to us all the time. He wants us to be whole and prosperous in all things. But there is a standard that He is calling us to that we have to remember. Today, I challenge you to pray for righteousness.  What does that mean?  Righteousness is the condition acceptable to God – integrity, virtue, and purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling and acting. (Strong’s Lexicon #1343)

People don’t like to talk about righteousness and holiness anymore. We get uncomfortable and automatically think we are being judged. But folks, the truth of the matter is we can’t continue to live in mess and expect to prosper. If your marriage is a mess, identify your part in it and ask God to work on YOU! Ask Him to fix YOUR attitude. You see, we can’t get clean and whole and right, if our focus is always on what the other person is doing wrong. 1 John 2:6 says “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” Did Jesus walk around angry? Did He cut the fool in the streets but holy in the Temple? No, He did not. So why do we? Why do we lower the standard to fit our own comfort level? I’m here to tell you that if you ask God to make YOU righteous, and you allow Him full access and control, the other situations around you will have to line up.

It’s time for us to look inward so that our outward will be reflective of God’s work. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:21 NLT) Isn’t Christ’s sacrifice enough for us to live right? Isn’t the fact that He took on all of our mess in advance so that we could have an abundant life enough to sacrifice the quick fixes of the world? The craziest thing about this is God is talking to the saved folks. There’s no expectation of right living for the unbeliever but there is for the believer. I want us to walk around with joy! After David sinned with Bathsheba, he poured out his heart to God in Psalm 51 and asks God to clean him up. But after that he says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you.” (Ps. 51:12 NLT) That lets me know that when we commit to living right and ask Him to create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit in us, there are rewards and benefits.

I encourage you to search your heart and your life and see where your mess is. Once you have done that, ask God to clean it up and make you righteous. I promise you that the losses don’t outweigh the gains. God desires to take you higher but He doesn’t want you weighed down by mess.  “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”(Matt. 13:43 NLT)

God bless and keep….AMEN