Blasphemy of Self

The subtleties with which our flesh curses God can blind us often to assume our state with God is nothing but bliss and perfection. I can look to others and compare myself with their standards (or lack of) and pat myself on the back with prideful applause, ignorant to my own depraved nature.
God has never called us to look AROUND to the left or right for our comparison, only UP, to CHRIST, to HIS measure of righteousness, humility, service, compassion, prayer, love, forgiveness, and obedience. When we see a weaker brother and find our self-piety on display, we fall into the Pharisaical trap so many have tripped into before us.
Paul said he was a 'wretched man', the 'chief of sinners', formerly a 'blasphemer'. To blaspheme means to speak and act against the character and nature of God with the utmost pride and defiance. In the life of the Christian, it is rarely our tongues that take the fall, but the BLASPHEMY OF SELF, the depraved sinful nature that Paul recognized we continue to struggle with AFTER salvation.
I am a new creation, and the old life of being dead in sin is now gone, but as Paul points out in Romans 7, the things I want to do in Christ, I don't seem to always do, but I end up doing the things I was saved FROM. I am a wretched man not because of my blasphemous past, but because of my wicked inclination to have tasted the heavenly gift and yet still desire the things of this world.
We may not be condemned for blaspheming God with our mouths, but in our conduct we are guilty as charged.
Only as we abide in Christ will these subtle pockets of pride, deceit, selfish ambition, and desire be exposed and consumed with His presence.
-Pilgrim