**********
I heard a sermon at my church this past weekend that made me think about our discussions on victor living. Pastor Aaron Jayne was preaching from the book of Galatians. This is an amazing book that all victors need to read often. Though it is but five chapters long, it is filled with such wisdom and insight. I believe what Paul wrote some 2000 years ago still speaks volumes in our world today. Paul wrote this book with a single focus in mind that, I believe, makes victor living possible. That single focus is freedom.
It is when we face bondage through how we view our lives that victim thinking becomes a real possibility. When we view who we are by how successful at what we are able to accomplish, we are setting ourselves up for thinking that threatens to make victims of those around us. God never intended for our circumstances to define us. The book of Galatians is a warning against making actions be proof of who God already sees us to be. I want to dive in on that subject a bit more using some of what Pastor Aaron discussed as the foundation of where we will go today.
Pastor Aaron said something that really made me think. He said that, "The difference between Christianity and all other religions is that Christians fundamentally believe that they are helpless and need to be rescued." Wow, with a definition of Christianity like this, it is no wonder people can hate the prospect of being a follower of Christ.
Human nature is such that we hate to think of ourselves as being helpless. It kind of makes my skin crawl thinking that I can't do enough to be what I want the world to see me as. Humans are such a self focused lot. We really do want to be self sufficient. We can't stand the thought of depending on someone else for what we need for too long. We live this way for good reason - people will ALWAYS let you down.
Be a part of a person's life for long enough and you will find that they will do or say something that will hurt you in ways that cut to the core. Most people don't intend to hurt you by their actions. Many times when we feel hurt, the person we see as doing the hurting didn't even know that they hurt us. It is as we view what is being said and what is being done in our lives through a broken lens of life that victimization can happen in ways that open the door to victim thinking. The more we think we can go it alone, the more victim thinking takes over in victimizing ways.
Aaron has it exactly right. We need to view our lives as being helpless, especially when it comes to who we are. We simply cannot do enough, well enough to make our identity be all it needs to be to make victor living happen in our lives. From that sense, we are helpless and need to be rescued.
Helpless doesn't mean that we are useless. The world does a really good job of trying to tie these two words together. Useless speaks of not being worthy. It speaks of not having purpose. It speaks of being disposable. That's the exact opposite of how God sees our lives. He didn't make us to be disposable or worthless or lacking in purpose. He made us His Child and that gives us all the attributes we will ever need to be the victors we long to be.
That's what Aaron is talking about when it comes to being helpless. It is when we trade our believe that we can work our way into victor living for the reality that God has already placed us in that role, that helpless takes on a power to make makes change happen in our world. God confirms what Pastor Aaron was saying in His word. Check out today's Bible verses with me now.
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Jeremiah 17:5-6 (ESV)
Pastor Aaron highlighted the point that being helpless is something that can make us feel like we don't measure up. He said that our esteem can plummet if we think about being helpless in the wrong way. God isn't trying to get us to have low self esteem. Aaron said that, "God is trying to get us to live in a 'Gospel Esteem'."
Gospel Esteem happens when we live in that place where God has made a way for us. It is when we see our life through God's eyes that the highs and lows of this world, that threaten to make our esteem follow suit, have less and less impact on our ability to live like a victor. Gospel Esteem is living in a place where the good news of God is what drives our actions. Gospel Esteem makes it possible to live like a victor when victory seems so far out of reach.
It is just like God to take words that make my skin crawl and turn them into a life giving ointment for that crawly skin. Helpless isn't what I want to be. It is what I am when I think about how capable this world is at making me feel like a victim. Thing is that helpless in God's eyes is the most powerful place a victor can reside.
When viewed from God's perspective, helpless and power go hand in hand. It is when we think that we are capable of doing all we need to to make identity have the ability to make us a victor that power goes out the window. I can't tell you how many times I have come to the point where my soul is so tired from all my own efforts to try and help myself in this crazy world. Do you know that feeling in your life? God wants things to be different for us all. He wants us to be energized, not demoralized. He wants us to be excited, not dejected. He wants us to be a victor, not a victim.
Pastor Aaron's word on helpless presents such a key perspective victors need to have in their lives. Helpless doesn't mean that we will sit by idly waiting to get were God wants us to go. Helpless means dependency on this God that made us. It means letting His power, His words and His perspective be all we need to make action be a meaningful part of our lives. It is when we let God be the one coming to our rescue every moment of our lives, that victor living takes on a meaning we start to believe in life changing ways.
How helpless do you feel right now? If you are like me, most times I feel pretty capable. God isn't asking that we give up on the fact that He made us to be very capable individuals. What He is asking is that we stop leaning on our abilities to make us be what He sees us as already. Helpless isn't a knock on who we are. It is what promises to make us who we have always wanted to be. Let the fact that God loved you enough to invite you into a relationship with Him be all the power you need to let helplessness take on a new role in your world today.
No comments:
Post a Comment