What matters is not what others
think of us, or even what we think of ourselves, but what God thinks of us. It
is easy to get caught up in the treadmill of trying to please others. We act,
look, and dress in such a way as to please other people. And we always fail,
because it is just not possible to please everyone. Also, let’s face it; most
of us do not fit the image our society has of the perfect individual. In fact,
I suspect that the image is rigged so almost no one can live up to it. But we
can spend our whole life trying to get that carrot on a stick. What, then, do
we do when we recognize this and become disillusioned?
So we reach that point where we
reconsider whether we ought to live our lives to please others and decide we
are going to just be ourselves. But then we must face the question of who we
are if we eliminate what other people think of us. And we decide to find
ourselves, but we are not quite clear where to look. The idea that a person can
define themselves is like thinking we can pull ourselves up by our own
bootstraps when we are not quite sure if we have hands or bootstraps. We need
some grid, some focus point to define ourselves by. Also, it is hard to avoid
the sneaking suspicion that we ourselves may not be quite as good as we ought
to be. That deep down in our souls there may be things that really should not
be actualized. But if we cannot be sure we can trust ourselves, who can we
trust?
It is at this place that God comes
in. First, He does not just flatter us. He sees that imperfect character deep
within us, sees it more clearly then we see it ourselves (Romans 3:23; Jeremiah
17:9; Isaiah 64:6) and loves us anyway (Romans 5:6-8; John 3:16; 1 John 4:10).
As a result, He sent His Son to pay the penalty for all the wrong things we have
ever done (1 Peter 2:24,25; Colossians 2:13,14; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He can
therefore offer salvation freely to those who put their faith in Him (Romans
4:4,5; Ephesians 2:8,9; Philippians 3:9). This results in our being declared
righteous in the sight of God (Romans 3:28; 8:33,34; Galatians 2:21). We are
made His children (John 1:12,13; Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 1:5). And because of
that, it is His judgment that really matters, not what other people think of us
or even what we think of ourselves (1 Corinthians 4:3-5; Romans 14:4; James
4:11,12). Now if we put our faith in Christ, God will begin to work in our life
to transform it (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:11-14). But our
identity is not based on what we can do, but on what Christ has done for us.
And it is only in this that our identity is secure.
No comments:
Post a Comment