"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

Yesterday we discovered that we ARE called to discern. The question isn't IF we should judge, but HOW we judge. So today we need to talk about why most of our attempts at discernment fail so miserably.

Here's what I need you to know...you cannot see clearly when you have a log in your eye. That sounds obvious, right? But we do this all the time. We try to help others with their tiny specks while completely ignoring the massive beam blocking our own vision.

Think about it just like trying to build a fence with a board across your face. You'd be bumping into posts, missing measurements, and probably hitting your thumb with the hammer more than the nail. The problem isn't your skill or your tools. The problem is you can't see what you're doing because something is blocking your view.

Jesus uses this incredible image to show us that unconfessed sin blinds us to grace. When you're walking around with your own sin undealt with, you lose the ability to extend grace to anyone else. In that condition, every attempt at discernment becomes condemnation. Every effort to help becomes judgment.

Look at King David's story in 2 Samuel 12. The prophet Nathan comes to him and tells him about a rich man who stole a poor man's only lamb. David explodes with anger and says the man deserves to die. But here's the thing. David had just done the exact same thing with Bathsheba. He had taken another man's wife, gotten her pregnant, and then had her husband killed to cover it up. David's unconfessed sin made him blind to his own hypocrisy.

Let me say this...the clearest vision for helping others comes from those who've first allowed God to remove what blinded them. David eventually understood this. After Nathan confronted him and David confessed his sin, he prayed in Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." And then just three verses later he says, "Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you."

Do you see what happened? David realized that because he knew what it was to walk through the failures of life, he now knew how to help others. His confession positioned him to extend grace. His willingness to let God remove his log gave him clear vision to help others with their specks.

This is so important right now for every believer to understand. We live in a world where the church has lost its ability to lovingly correct because we've lost our ability to confess. Let me say that again...

We live in a world where the church has lost its ability to lovingly correct because we've lost our ability to confess. 

We want to point out everyone else's problems while hiding our own.
We want to fix other people while refusing to let God fix us.

But here's the incredible truth. Confessed sin positions us to extend grace. When you've experienced the mercy of God removing your log, you approach others differently. You don't come with condemnation. You come with compassion because you remember what it felt like to be blind and then to see clearly again.

So before you try to help anyone else, deal with your own sin first. Let God create a clean heart in you. Allow Him to remove what blinds you. Only then will you have the clarity to practice true discernment.

Tomorrow we'll discover another beam that keeps us from seeing clearly, one that might surprise you even more.

Spend time in honest confession before God today. Use Psalm 51 as a guide. Ask Him to create a clean heart in you and remove anything that blocks your vision. Write down what He reveals.