Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Job 4:6
Lord Jesus, this Advent season I am reminded of how I can sometimes get it half right and half wrong. After placing all of my confidence in You, I am still vulnerable to believing that my personal integrity can earn me favor in Your eyes. I become consumed with my reputation as a Christian or concerned about how folks see me. Yes, those things are important. But not for the reason I often think. It is not about what folks think about me. It’s about what they might think about You! It is about me not bringing shame to Your Name. My reputation means nothing. I am broken, for sure. My concern is how others see You. It is my intent to always decrease that You might increase.
If seeing my brokenness and flaws shines a spotlight on Your grace and mercy, expose me Lord! My hope is built not on my righteousness or integrity, but on You and Your finished work on the cross! Today, I place my full confidence in You, resting in Your integrity to save and deliver Your servants. Let others not see anything else in me but a person who has placed all of their hope in the integrity of their God. Help me to follow in Your earthly footsteps, holding fast to the hope that springs up from within my heart as I look in anticipation on the great work that You are doing in me and in the world around me. Amen.