Do I Do?

I preach love, but am I loving?

I preach faith, but am I faithful?

I preach hope, but am I hopeful?

I preach judge not, but do I judge no one?

I preach God's glory, but do I only seek His glory, not mine?

I preach sacrificial giving, but do I give sacrificially?

I preach having humble means, but do I live humbly?

I preach kindness, but am I kind?

I preach surrender, but do I surrender all to God?

I preach the Bible, but do I live out the Bible?

I preach Christ, but do I follow Christ?

I could go on and on, but the answers for all are the same: No, not most of the time!

I strive, and sometimes succeed, but more often than not, I fail.

In all that I do in Christ, I am a work-in-progress: let it always be so. But I will never in my striving truly succeed until glorified I meet God in Heaven!

Father, let my most urgent prayer be: never look out over a world in desperate need of all You provide and see in others failure, and in me success: all good gifts are from above, and whatever success I have is from You alone.

I fail so often and so blatantly my microscope must be turned only on myself. Never, ever, Father, let me see a world that just doesn't match up to who I think I am in Christ, or someone else who I think just really has it all figured out: let me never, ever think I've got it all figured out because I think I have spent more time in reading and prayer, in study and worship and praise!

Let me see lost and found, not evil and good; let me see pain and sorrow and desperate need, oh Father, not foolishness, failure, and rebellion: Yours is to judge, mine is to kneel, and worship, and be thankful; mine is to be Your faithful witness, and to practice, not just preach.

Let me only see in all who are not yet saved, lovingly and winsomely (if only I can), not people to be feared or hated, but so much humanity in desperate need of salvation.

Let me have thanks and praise alone to You for Your gift of salvation that saved my life, nothing earned, nothing I could buy, nothing deserved, yearning ever so strongly to bring what I have been given so lovingly by You, Father, to others who are perishing and laboring in such desperate need of the one and only Way to truth, love, and eternal life; to salvation and rebirth in grace and love: to Your Son, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In His name,

Amen.