Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to another morning's with the Masters, where we

devote ourselves to the Lord, daily with you. Good morning, you guys. Good morning, indeed.

We're picking back up with new morning mercies, so is that for the dude, Tories just can take it

from here. Yes, y'all, let's do it. Today's devotional says this. Change is not found in defending

our righteousness, but in admitting our weakness and crying for help. I wish I could say that this

is not my struggle. I wish I could say that I fully accepted the reality of my spiritual battle.

I wish I could say that I'm always thankful for the help God provides. I wish I could say that I'm

always open and approachable. I wish I could say all of these things, but sadly, I can't. When I'm

approached about a wrong I've committed, I don't tend to say to the other person, thank you so

much for confronting me. I know that I suffer from spiritual blindness and don't see myself accurately.

Please, keep rebuking me. I know it's a visible sign of God's love. No. That's hilarious.

No, there are two things that tend to be more natural for me as I feel my ears redden and my

chest tighten. I first activate my internal defense system and mount arguments in my mind against

the charge. Perhaps I was misunderstood. Maybe this is an invalid judgment of my motives.

Perhaps what this person thought I did, I just didn't do. Then I worked to erect arguments for my

righteousness. I list all of the good, but maybe unnoticed things I am doing. I work to convince myself

and the person confronting me that I am righteous. In these two actions, not only am I negating

empirical evidence of the sin that still resides in my heart, but I'm also defending righteousness

that doesn't exist. Here's the sad part. In doing both of these things, I'm devaluing the grace

that is my only hope in life and death. To whatever extent I am able to convince myself that my sin

isn't really sin, that is that my little wrongs don't really rise to the level of what Jesus

died for. I am not really that excited about grace. Why? Because I have convinced myself that I

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