True character comes out in hard times. When the pressure is on, the truest of our being is displayed. You may think that someone is not capable of what is displayed during those times, however hard it is to believe, that is true character. People can be completely broken, others can hurt, lash out, slander, destroy, and are just plain mean. What we have to remember is that just because someone lashes out and displays their character, what they may be saying, or how they are behaving towards you, is not a true reflection who you are, but a revelation of their character. It is important to also know that our own true character comes out during these times, and we must examine ourselves to make sure that we are who we say we are, and that we are being true to that. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm139: 23-24).
If you say you are a Christian, and are living contradictory to what God’s Word says, you are lying to yourself, and everyone around you. “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). This is not to say that we don’t all fall or sin, because we all do. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) It is important to ask God for forgiveness. He will forgive. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. (1 John 1:9-10). We need to give weight to everything in His Word. This passage also warns that if we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. If there is only one thing God cannot do, it is lie!
You may have recently made some life changing decisions that have affected other people. Regardless of how that person responds, or chooses to react, you have to be confident that you are following what the Lord is leading you to do, and not be pressured into compromising, or going against your morals and integrity. There is a good chance that you are in the place you are now because you neglected to heed God’s Word in the first place. Don’t beat yourself up because of this. There is grace for all. God does not condemn, neither does He want us to continue in sin. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12: 1-2).
Paul goes on to mention not to think more of yourself that you ought. As I stated above, we have all sinned, and fall short of God’s glory. We must press on in Him, look in the mirror at ourselves (the only one we answer to Him for), and continue with endurance on this journey. “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. None of us is better than another, or more deserving than another. God created all, loves all, and forgives all that come to know Him as their personal Savior. His grace is more than I deserve, and what I need to bestow on others. Keep your eyes on Christ, and the ultimate prize.
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you” (Philippians 3: 13-15).
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