…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
Romans 3:23

This is a basic, essential truth of the gospel.
That everyone of us have sinned. Have fallen short of God’s standard.

In other places in the Bible, we learn that not only have we sinned unintentionally, but we have in fact sinned willfully and rebelliously.

Ridge Burns at Sanctuary Church gave a great message on Sunday out of I Timothy, about godliness.

One of the points of Godliness is an “awareness of sin”.

This is a great thing to meditate on:

Am I aware of sin?

Or do I think that I am cruising along fine?
I think this is an area that those in ministry need to examine a bit more closely.

As a pastor, or a Christian worker, or a missionary — most of your day, and a lot of your evenings are spent in Godly pursuits. You are in the Word more than the average person. You are in prayer more than the average person. You are teaching and leading others. You are an expert on godliness, and an authority in the area of faith.

Here’s what I believe happens though.
Because the course of our life in ministry really is “holiness” — we think that sin doesn’t really touch us.
At least not in the major ways we see it touching others. And so I think we lose that “awareness” of our sin.
Or we begin to think we are above stumbling. And then we see time and time again, those in the ministry falling.

All we see in our lives, as in this photo is a beautiful blue and green. But we don’t recognize there is quite a bit of muck.

I challenge you my friends in ministry — examine yourself.
Revel in grace, but confess sin daily.
And if you can’t think of anything, stay a little bit longer in prayer.

The more we recognize our own sinfulness — the closer we are to understanding God’s goodness and grace.