Relating to Myself

 

Rom 12:3

 

3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

NKJV

   

How is your relationship? With yourself?  The relationship you have with yourself is one of the greatest examples of a love-hate relationship most of us will ever experience.  On the one hand, we hate ourselves, our short-comings and failings, and our weaknesses.  On the other hand, it seems we can be so self-focused that we expect others to make it all about us all of the time.  How can we resolve  these complex issues?

 

Finding the correct balance is important.   We should "love our neighbor as we love ourselves." (Mark 12:30-31) This indicates that a certain amount of self-love is important.  It is not a sign of humility to constantly talk bad about yourself.  We have to recognize that we are created in the image of God and for His glory.  We are to be "trees of righteousness, a planting for the display of his splendor." (Isa. 61:3)  Because of that, we must work to see ourselves through God's eyes- with purpose, value, and potential.

 

Even more dangerous, though, is a Christian who thinks more highly of themselves than they ought to.  Pride, boasting, bragging, and self-promoting are not flattering.  No one wants to be around the person who has all the answers, can "out-do" everyone else's accomplishments, and thinks that they have the corner-market on God.  Being in love with oneself is repulsive both to God and man.

 

We must not think more highly than we ought to... but we need to see ourselves higher than we sometimes do.  A sober and balanced self-assessment includes:  1) recognizing our weaknesses and asking God for grace to improve and 2) recognizing our strengths, while recalling that they are all His doing and gifting.

 

We cannot hold on to our past failings.  Self-loathing causes us to walk in defeat. C.S. Lewis once said it best, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself  less." When we mess up, we must repent and once again return our focus to God.  It must be about Him.

 

Dear Lord, forgive me for the times I have loved myself too much, as well as  for the times I have hated myself.  Help me to have a balanced  relationship with myself, and a correct relationship with you.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

 

 

Can I Make a Confession?

 

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete.  This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light and in him is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:1-9

So, if I just say I sinned he will forgive me?  Does that sound a little too easy?  That is the beauty of the grace of God.  He has made salvation so simple, a pre-schooler can do it!  He stands ready, willing and able to forgive us.  All he asks from us is that we confess our sins to him.  When we do, he unleashes forgiveness, cleansing and purifying into our lives. He washes away things that are unrighteous and restores us to righteousness.

What a gracious God we serve!  There are things I have said, done or thought in my life that make me unworthy to ever stand in his presence.  In fact, they would justifiably send me into an eternity of hell.  But when I just use my mouth, name my sin, take ownership of it, he just makes it disappear!

But here is the hard part: pride.  Stinking pride often stands in the way of us wanting to admit we have done wrong.  I am mad with so and so because they did thus and so to me (nice analogy, huh?).  Therefore, I run them through the mud to everyone that will stand still.  Now the time comes that God has convicted me of it for the fortieth time and I know I cannot go on without his forgiveness.  The tendency is to start with, “Lord, I am sorry I said what I said, but they never should have done that to me…”  Pride makes us justify our sin rather than confess our sin.  Furthermore, sometimes in our pride we do not want to let go of our pet sin, rather we cling to it for dear life.

There are other times that we so hate ourselves for our wrongdoing that we find it difficult to admit it out loud or name it to God.  We have to work beyond all that junk if we are going to truly bring it before him in humility and repentance.

Another fan favorite is this:  “Lord, please forgive me of all my sins.  Amen.”  Ok, there is times that this type of prayer works.  But there are others times it simply will not fly.  We cannot just clump it together; gloss over it and keep going.  We need to own it if we want to be free from it.

I remember a time a number of years ago that I was feeling like my prayers were hitting the ceiling and bouncing back to me.  Ever been there?  I did not know what was wrong; I just did not feel close to God any longer.  I finally decided to start a fast because I did not know what else to do.  During my prayer time one day, I felt compelled to just start naming any sin that came to mind and asking God to forgive me of it.  You can’t over-repent, right?!  So I began praying, “Lord forgive me of lying, stealing, cheating, gossiping, murdering, committing adultery, being gluttonous, slandering, sowing seeds of division…”  If it was a sin named in the Bible I could think of, I repented.  Now obviously I hadn’t killed anyone or committed adultery, but we have to remember the holiness of God.  Jesus said if we hate, we commit murder.  If we look on someone to lust, we have committed adultery.  So I thought, who knows?  Maybe I was angry with someone without good reason, or looked at a movie star and thought, “Man, he’s fine!”  Regardless, as I began to go through and sincerely confess and repent of sin, I began to feel the weight fall off of me.  I began to feel so light and free. I had committed sin I was not even aware of on a conscious level! Before long there was no distance between me and God, only sweet communion.

In a day’s time there are so many opportunities to sin in thought, word or deed.  Lots of times we fail to practice a lifestyle of repentance and we overlook the need to confess.  As it builds up, our conscious becomes hardened and we do not even hear the convincing voice of the Holy Spirit as well.

Yep, confession is all it takes.  But we have to crucify the flesh and humble ourselves to do that.

Dear Lord, forgive me of taking you for granted.  For committing sin and failing to confess it to you.  Please wash away the grime that living in this world leaves on my spirit.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Sherri

Do You Know Your Opposition?

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  I Peter 5:5

I have been opposed by friends; I have been opposed by enemies; I have been opposed by teachers and I have been opposed by co-workers.  I have even been opposed by Christians.  But when Almighty God opposes you- you have a real problem!

I always like to picture God in the analogy of the loving Father.  This is one of those passages that bring that imagery to my mind.  There are times I have to bring a word of correction or discipline to one of our sons.  When I feel that their hearts are humble and repentant, it is so easy to extend grace and forgiveness.  But when they are proud and defiant, oh my!  Katie, bar the door!  Their rebellion quickly shuts up any flood of mercy that I may have been feeling.

When we are proud, we are full of ourselves and believe we have it all figured out.  That kind of person is unteachable and ultimately, unreachable. Pride exalts a person to the place of God.  We believe we hold our own answers and our own destiny.  When a person becomes puffed up with pride, the only loving act of a heavenly Father must be to bring discipline that will result in humility.

I have had the Lord bring me into places to teach and humble me. When that has happened, there have been seasons of deep mourning when I recognize how much sin lies within my heart.  There is only room for one person to sit on the throne of your heart.  It can be you, or it can be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  What will your choice be?

Dear Lord, forgive me for the wickedness of the sin of pride.  Help me to have an accurate estimation of my own worth, abilities and knowledge. Help me to always defer to you and show you reverence and humility in everything I think or do.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

Sherri

Who Do You Think You Are?

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you:  Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Romans 12:3

This is one of those “take you down a notch” passages.  Every now and then, we need to be reminded who we are and Whose we are.  Let’s be honest.  Nobody really likes someone who is arrogant, conceited or a know-it-all.  Being full of yourself is a turn off- so much more so in the kingdom of God. 

When we come to Christ for salvation, one of the first steps is recognizing our own sin nature and shortcomings.  We have to recognize that we are not perfect and reach out to the One who is.  Pride is the opposite of that. Pride says:  “ I have it all figure out. I know what to do.  I’ve got it going on.”

Now on the contrary, this also does not mean that Christians should go around feeling like they are lower than low.  Christians should not be shrinking violets with poor self-esteem.  We are children of the King; we are his beloved.  Therefore we are worthwhile people with a great purpose.

So where is the balance?  This passage indicates that we are to think of ourselves in sober judgment.  This is means that we are humble enough to see the truth about ourselves and turn to God for help and forgiveness.  The measure of faith we have been given allows us to be a child of God.  The measure of faith helps us believe for whatever we need from God.    By humility we know what we deserve, but by faith, we walk in His favor.  By understanding of the truth, we know our short comings; but by the measure of faith, we receive our inheritance in Christ.

The bottom line is that we get our sense of worth from Christ.  If we are somebody because he loves us and paid the price for us, that is a sobering truth.  Why? Because it is not based on us or our goodness, but rather on His character, which is always love.

Pride is a fault all of us struggle with.  We have to strive not feel we deserve to get our way all of the time.  We have to strive not to feel that we are right all the time.  We have to strive to get ourselves off of our minds, period.  Some people struggle with a different type of pride where they always feel like they are not good enough.  They feel as if they don’t deserve anything.  How is this pride?  It is pride because it is exalting our opinion above what the Bible says about us.  If the Bible says we are “the apple of His eye.”  That is what we are.  If the Bible says we are his children, that is who we are.

I urge you today to evaluate the way you view yourself.  Pray not to think more highly- or more lowly- of yourself than you ought to think.  Rather, see yourself through the lens of truth, which is the Word of God.

Dear Lord, examine my heart.  Show me places that pride lurks.  Forgive me my tendency and help me to see myself as you would have me to, in balance with Your Word.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.