Day 88, Year 1

Acknowledging Your Foolishness Leads to Greater Change

“I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.” (Psalm 73:22 NKJV)

“He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.” (Hebrews 5:2 NASB)

Believers who truly understand their problems in conjunction with the instructions and testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ often feel that they are very ignorant and foolish, even acknowledging their beastly nature. However, the Lord is compassionate toward all ignorant and misguided who still want to turn to Him. Indeed, for new believers who are complacent, recognizing our foolishness, ignorance, and lostness could lower or correct our puffed-up or inappropriate self-image, which is the right starting point toward God’s wisdom and understanding.

We need to believe that Jesus will deal gently with all who are weak. Some people with big egos or love faces feel embarrassed or ashamed to confess their foolishness, ignorance, lostness, and so on to Jesus, and they might also feel incompetent. However, the second verse of today clearly states that “He can deal gently….” “Deal gently,” metriopatheo in Greek, means “not unduly disturbed by the errors, faults, sins of others, but bear them gently,” which translates as “have compassion” in the King James Bible. Thus, Jesus will certainly have mercy on and help all who are weak and need His help.

In fact, He understands our weakness, foolishness, ignorance, and getting lost better than everyone. Sometimes, people feel uneasy or lose face before God because they cannot acknowledge their numerous problems. To address this problem, we need to accept our true selves through the Lord’s compassion and acceptance. Admitting and leaving our problems to Him is usually the key to spiritual growth. As the first verse of today suggests, when people confess before the Lord that they are like beasts, they will likely distance themselves from the nature of beasts, since normal people would not usually admit honestly that they are beasts while they like to be beastly. When Jesus was living on earth, He was also beset with weakness according to the second verse of today. However, He was not overcome by any weaknesses. Similarly,  we often face our weakness, foolishness, ignorance, and lostness, yet we can overcome all difficulties with His help. The key is to trust in Him with our hearts and be willing to correct our mistakes one by one according to His guidance.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you think you were inherently weak, foolish, ignorant, or lost? Why?

2) Do you firmly believe that the Lord Jesus will deal gently with all your weaknesses and help you to transform and be fortified?