Pop tarts and Self Justification

Luke 16:14 The pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of these things and they ridiculed him (Jesus). 15 And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted in the sight of men is an abomination in the sight of God.

"Dad I want a bag of goldfish. I ate half of the pop tart." The words of Eli my four year old as he tries to justify his actions and desires. He knows that he can not have a snack until he eats his breakfast and so he does his best to work the system.
Self Justification is something we are born with and it can lead us astray. We all want to feel as though as long as we are better than the next guy, then we are doing great. The problem with the process of self justification is that it points to our own acts, but only a select set of actions. We want people to know the good stuff that we do so that the bad stuff kind of gets forgotten about.

I know that I have tried to justify many of my thoughts, words, purchases and decisions. It ain't a good thing. Look at what Jesus says about men that love money and justify themselves. He says that they exalt their own actions in an attempt to justify themselves and that is an abomination to God. We are to exalt God so that He may justify our actions, not exalt our actions so that we can hopefully be justified before God.

That stings a little if we are honest. As Jesus said, God knows our hearts and He knows why we do what we do. Examine your heart and ask, "What am I doing that I think justifies me?". " What is it that I think makes me more worthy to God than other people?" Then quickly realize that any action aside form worship of Christ is stealing the Glory from the only one who can Justify, Jesus Christ.