Program Success Christian Reader September 2007 | Page 38

38 The Christian Reader September 2007 Loving In The Red Zone By Shewanda Riley GOOD BUT WEAK! “People will be... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power.” Would you rather have someone who is weak but good or someone who is good but weak? When this question dropped into my spirit during prayer time a few weeks ago, I thought to myself: neither one because they sound the same to me. The question was repeated and I prayed to God and asked him what exactly did that mean. I tried to focus real hard on understanding the question but was stumped. I’d been praying to God about some relationship concerns and was looking for divine direction and insight. But what kept coming in response to my prayer was this question: Would you rather have someone who is weak and acts good or someone who is good but has weaknesses? Someone who is weak but looks good is not interested in really making a change. They are more interested in giving the appearance that they are lead by their desire to be “good” when in actuality they are more led by their desire to indulge in their weaknesses. When someone is good but weak, they have a sincere heart to submit to God’s will but might find themselves struggling to do so. They are honest about their ability to fail sometimes….they don’t wallow in their failures, however. They try to use those as stepping stones to spiritual growth. I’d hoped that God was not giving me that as my answer to the prayer that I’d prayed earlier….it just didn’t seem like an answer to me. I started to think about his question and was quite frankly puzzled. What is the difference between having someone who is weak but good or good with weaknesses? Couldn’t I just have “good” period? Did I have to choose one or the other? What I thought by wanting someone all good meant that I wanted someone like me….but God showed me that I wasn’t all good. In fact, despite my best efforts, I still fell short. After I stopped crying and repenting for my faults, I realized that instead of crying for God to change someone else, I really needed to start with crying and praying for God to change ME! I’d been so consumed about other’s weaknesses hindering their ability to grow spiritually that I’d been hindering my own. In fact, I was missing out on a chance to show grace to others. All I could say to this was “Ouch!” I’d always thought I showed grace and compassion to others but God was showing me that the difficulty I had in resolving the situation had everything to do with my inability to sincerely show grace. Being able to show grace meant that I could no longer be satisfied by superficial “Christian” behavior but had to exercise grace by looking deeper for the “Christian” heart and continue to make my own heart more Christlike.