I Saw Myself for Who I Was

I saw myself for who I was, a sinner.

I've heard that phrase a few times over the past few years. Greg will often use this phrase when he shares his testimony.  There is something so simple yet powerful about those few words. 

We all love hearing testimonies and if we are honest we all love those very dramatic testimonies.  For some of us, those testimonies make those people seem cooler.  We stop and compare our own testimony to what that person went through.  

I can remember hearing some of those "dramatic" testimonies growing up.   As someone who grew up in the church and was saved early, I would be glued listening to these people share their story.  I was amazed and probably a little jealous.  I wanted that story where it was so clear that Christ had done something that could only be explained by Him.  There were even times that I would sit in those folding metal chairs and question my own salvation.  I would think these people have so clearly changed, did I really change that much?  

Satan is so smart.  He took those situations for me and twisted them.  Those times should have been times that encouraged a believer but instead for me he knew what my weaknesses were and he capitalized on them.  

I love listening to Greg's testimony and not because it's a great story, which it is, but because he reminds me all the time that my testimony is just like his.  He reminds me that I'm just as filthy of a sinner as he is.  My sins put Christ on the cross, my disobedience is the same.  We tend to put things in categories and compare ourselves to others and think it's not that bad.  It is that bad.  

Today, I want to see myself for who I am.  I'm a sinner.  BUT, I'm a sinner who has met the Living God.  I'm a sinner who knows that there is hope and that anyone can have that same hope.  I'm beyond thankful this morning that the God of the Universe wanted to have a relationship with me, a sinner.  A sinner who has been saved by grace.