The thought that many Christians are hypocrites is popular nowadays, and for good reason. However, I have always cherished the fact that I was the Christian who wouldn't look great at church, but live like hell during the week. I would be the first one to shoot straight with you, but I would be the first one to admit when I make a mistake. I would organize accountability groups and impromptu Bible studies. I would be the guy to read my Bible, pray, and even talk to my friends about how God was working in my life, but I would even take it a step further. I would go so far as to share some of my deepest and most intimate struggles with my friends in order to pray for each other (when we thought of it). In my mind, I have been the model of the Christ-centered life to everyone around me, and I have had the duty to share how I do it with everyone who doesn't do it like me.
Now all this stuff is great. Being real, admitting weaknesses, studying the Bible, and even having accountability groups are certainly essential to a thriving Christian life, but I had a problem. A huge problem. I would read parts the Bible stories and scoff at the people that made "blind" mistakes. One great example is the time that God took the Israelites through the middle of an ocean, and days later (not months, not weeks, but days) they were grumbling to Moses about the bitterness of the water they had to drink. Of course, God easily fixes this and has Moses throws a log into the water to make it not only drinkable, but sweet! Then, less than three months after these two miracles, the Israelites were so exasperated and faithless that they yelled to Moses, "Would that we had died by the hand of YHWH in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (Exodus 16:3 ESV) God again provides by sending them bread from heaven. After reading such an account, I would conclude in my mind, "The Israelites were a pretty faithless and ignorant people. It's amazing how God could ever care about people like that."
Whenever I have voiced this opinion in a class, Sunday School, or even casual conversation, a more mature Christian has always corrected my prideful attitude by mentioning that not only was it the Israelites that act that way, but in reality it is every Christian that is prone to forget the Lord's blessings. Last week (10.10.10) was the first time that I understood all believers to be just as foolish and blind as the Israelites that forgot God's miracles!
To expound on this, the move out here to Minnesota has been a stretch on my body, mind, and spirit. At the beginning of this transition, I felt very isolated, bored, and out of shape. In a period of 2 weeks, God provided me with 2 job opportunities, 4 ministry opportunities, and the possibility of 4 places to exercise... So in two weeks, I went from sitting on Facebook and wasting away hours and days of my life to turning down terrific ministry opportunities because of my newly jam-packed schedule. Yet again, God worked a miracle. It was nothing I could have even dreamt about, as these things were just placed onto my lap. Even better through this miracle, God has shown my own hypocrisy in my judgments.
Being at college and being somewhat isolated, I have felt, for some reason, that God was not capable of having the perfect plan for my future not only in the relationship world, but also for my overall satisfaction. Both of these blasphemous thoughts have led my mind and heart to wander from the truth of the gospel's life-giving effect on my spirit, and I have been led and deceived to doubt both the goodness and the sovereignty of God. Through these times of testing I have not clutched dearly the Word of the Lord and I have paid for it with my sense of peace and restfulness.
It was only after stewing in my own lack of self-sufficiency that God lifted the veil from my eyes and showed me the sin of which I was guilty. I was guilty of the same sin of which I condemned the Israelites time and time again! After a season of His overwhelming me with blessings, I was faced with a simple test of my faith and I failed miserably. I doubted God's power to provide only weeks after He gave me a host of tremendously undeserved blessings.
I may be able to spot hypocrisy in someone else, but the Israelites' sin of unbelief pales in comparison to my own! My pride of not being a hypocrite may be justified in some ways, but God has shown me that my lack of faith makes me just as much of a hypocrite as anyone else. Also, He is teaching me that while it was amazing that God was able to put up with a nation full of forgetful complainers, but how much more amazing is it that He would not only tolerate but abundantly bless wretched sinners like me! I am so much worse than the Israelites, because I have the whole of God's revelation! And while they have the presence of YHWH, I have the presence of His Spirit living inside my body, teaching and convicting me every day!
