God Must Bring Out the Worst in Me Before He Can Bring Out the Best in Me

Last week, I went on a 6-day road trip to Seattle and back with my family. We made some good memories. But the six days of hard driving over mountains and crowded freeways took their toll on my body and soul. (I kept thinking: ‘I’m too old for this!’)

I know myself well enough that I was alert to this weakness. Whenever my routine and/or order are changed, I am tempted toward impatience. You might say these situations “bring out the worst in me”—my fleshliness: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh…” (Romans 7:18).

I know we are all in this together! And we hate it. Because we don’t want anyone to see the worst in us. We try to keep it under cover. But that won’t work. In fact, it must be revealed—then we can take it to the cross for execution!—“putting to death the deeds of the flesh” (Romans 8:13).

Holy Spirit uses one thousand and one things to bring out the worst in us—trials, difficulties, people—to make us “feel” our neediness. We must not fear to let the Spirit bring us to the place where we say “Wretched man that I am” (Romans 7:24). Only then when He finds no resistance in us can He “bring out the best in us”—the Life of Jesus.

“…always carrying about in my body the dying of Jesus [dying to the worst in me] so that the life of Jesus [the best in me] may be manifested…” (2 Corinthians 4:10).