My Canaanite

My friend Sue is teaching a Bible study called Enhancing Your Marriage. There are a few of us who no longer live in Garmisch but still want to participate in the study. So she sent an email to us today to mull over.

One of the questions dealt with a list of inner enemies, what the author called our "Canaanites." In Deuteronomy, God told the Israelites to drive out the Canaanites that were in the promised land before they (the Israelites) took possession of it. Likewise, we have enemies or weaknesses in our "land" or lives that we need to banish. These are things like: anger, guilt, envy, unforgiveness, selfishness, jealousy, apathy, discontent, greed, hate, foolish talk, procrastination, etc.

Looking over the list, I saw that I had several. I don't want to share them with you all. It's bad enough to have to circle them on the paper. But I do want to talk about one of them. The author had us identify our number one "Canaanite." For me, that was a critical nature.

So...my goal is to defeat this. (I'll tackle the others later!) But I'm counting on God to help me out. And my friends. I want people to hold me accountable.

The sad fact is that I am not alone in this. Sitting in a Bible class the other day, I heard several comments about what other people were doing wrong. How can we spur each other on toward good works if we are too busy noting the bad works that others are doing? What good is it to point out the speck in our neighbor's eye, if our own is blinded by the plank?

I am tired of this. When I complain about what someone else is or isn't doing, ask me what it is that I am doing. When I hear you comment about the faults of others, I will gently ask about how to deal with our own.