Wednesday Wake Up #4

Is Being A Good Person Good Enough?

I have heard that far too many people who refer to themselves as Christians think that in order to get to Heaven they just need to be a "good person." That thinking makes me question what a good person really is. I know "good people"  but there are times that they have done bad things. Then again, I have known "bad" people who have done good things.

Is a good person someone who always volunteers at shelters for the homeless and visits sick people in hospitals? Are bad people only the ones who break major laws? What about people who lie; are they bad? What about white lies? Aren't those okay?

There are so many questions and ways to try to figure out who is good and who is bad, but God is not concerned with who is good or bad, He wants you to put Him first in all things (see Matthew 6:33). Everything? Yes! Everything!

If we go back to the 10 Commandments, we see that the first commands are all about God and us honoring Him by having no other gods before Him, have no false idols (worship nothing other than God), do not take the Lord's name in vain and last, we are to keep the Sabbath (take a day off from working as God did when making the universe). Those are not the last four commandments, but the first four. God told Moses to relay that message and keep his commands about our relationship to Him FIRST. The second set are all about our relationships with people.

Jesus had an encounter with a young rich man in Matthew 19:16-26. The young rich man wanted to know how to get to Heaven. He thought that since he kept all the commandments then he would be able to spend eternity with Jesus in Heaven. Jesus in the end told the man to sell all of his possessions. The man couldn't do it and went away sad because he had great possessions. We learn from this, that no matter how great of a person you have been in your own eyes, God knows more. God wants you to dedicate yourself to Him and His will. When confronted with that many of us will just walk away.

More on that on Friday....


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