But I wasn’t looking for trouble only a fool takes chances. Fools or children who don’t know any better.”
–Louis L’Amour (Last Stand At Papago Wells)
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.”
–1 Corinthians 13:11 (HCSB)
——————-
November already! How did that happen? The world turns, we get caught up in our busyness and soon another year has passed. We look back and what do we see? Accomplishment or ruin, or maybe just the same old, same old.
As we start to move out of this year of 2018, I would ask the question, “Are you a sincere person”? I didn’t ask if you were consistent, but if you were sincere. Sincerity must come before consistency. As one grows in their consistency it will be added to their sincerity.
Some people are extremely zealous, but without any doctrinal backbone. Some people think that the rah-rah is the way to show Christianity. George Matheson wrote, “Do not pretend that thou hast to-day what waits to-morrow! Do not seek to shine with more light than is in thee! Thy light may only be a dawn, but God’s dawn is better than man’s gilding; be true to thyself, O my soul!” Your witness is not built on your emotional state, but upon the sincere and secure Word of God.
I might add another thought to this. People may think they are sincere when they make a promise or vow, but they have not sat down to count the cost. There was a man in our church when I was growing up that whenever a pledge was taken for a project or when money was needed for the church, he always made the largest pledge. I found out that he rarely made good on his pledge. His heart was not sincere to begin with. Was it for show? Was it to build himself up? To be sincere means whole-heartedness. Man pledges to be sincere when he comes to Christ; he pledges his whole-hearted being. To do that one must guard against emotion and listen to the voice of God, then do what he can with what he has unless the Spirit tells him to do otherwise.
We are often our own worst enemy. What was it that the Pogo said in the cartoon strip, “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us”? Often a person doesn’t grow up, or doesn’t want to grow up and still play childish games. It seems that life to many is that–just a game. They may talk a good talk, but when it comes to sincerity they rarely show it. In fact, sincerity is not for show; it is something that is done because a person realizes their responsibility and has put childish things aside.