None of us are perfect, and yet too often we pretend to be so. Do you recognize any defects in your character? If so, do you try to conceal them, or are you honest about them?
It’s important to recognize our weaknesses instead of trying to hide them from others, including ourselves.
According to Matt Bays, the precedent of being honest about character defects has to start with those in positions of leadership.
“It starts with leadership, and in churches or in any spiritual environment, whoever the leaders are, they have to be aware of their own brokenness.”
We often want our pastors and leaders to be faultless, but that just isn’t realistic or authentic. Many pastors have taken to being honest and vulnerable about their struggles, an example we should all seek to emulate.
“These days you’re starting to find in churches where pastors will talk about how they aren’t perfect and they have struggles too. That’s all well and good, but we need people who can actually rattle off their worthless idols.”
Everyone has worthless idols that they cling to and can’t seem to shake. Matt says it’s not good enough to just say we have problems. It’s important to be specific.
“What was mine? I’m an alcoholic, I turned to the drink, that was my go-to. Another one is, I tend to blame people for my problems. Also, I’m addicted to approval. I need people to approve of me.”
It’s critical that we know our weaknesses and that we don’t try to hide them from the world, or ourselves.
“We have to know our character defects, because when we put them out there in front of us, and we can confess them, then we can keep an eye on them.”
Matt encourages us to go as far as sharing our character defects with someone else as an extra measure of accountability and protection.
“You can say to them, ‘does this sound like my need for approval’ and they’ll say, ‘yeah dude, that’s your need for approval speaking. I don’t think that person meant anything by that.'”
It’s important to be ruthless and intentional when it comes to rooting out character defects. It’s not a matter of if we have them, it’s which ones plague us the most.
“You look at your character defects, you acknowledge what those are, you take time to think about them, and how they are controlling your life.”
A wise person knows intimately their weaknesses and strengths. What weaknesses do you feel you can’t tell anyone about?
Matt Bays is a writer, speaker, and musician with a passion to call people out of their hiding places. In ministry for twenty years, he and his wife, Heather, live in Indianapolis with their fun-loving and insightful teenage daughters.
Key Scripture: Jonah 2:8
Featured Songs: Rise – Danny Gokey; Who You Say We Are – Steven Curtis Chapman; Calvary – Hillsong
Finding God in the ruins
