“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it."
Psalm 139:14 (NLT) The Bible says there’s nothing simple about you. You’re complex and multifaceted. You’re not easy to understand or explain. In Psalm 139:14, David says, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!” (NLT). To make changes in your life and become all that God intends for you to be, you have to look at every dimension of your life, not just one. As Ecclesiastes 7:18 says, “A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it” (The Message). There are five factors that create your identity. You did not choose these factors. God dealt them to you. Have you ever played a game of cards? Usually, you have to play the cards you’re dealt. You don’t get to mix and match them. You don’t get to say, “I want to play someone else’s hand instead.” You can only play the cards you’re given. In many ways this is a metaphor for life. Some things are just part of the hand you’re dealt—like your parents, birthplace, race, and talents. You didn’t choose them—but that’s what you have to play with, like it or not. The Bible says a lot about the factors that you’re given in life that make you you. In fact, the Bible gives four facts that are true about each aspect of your identity. Everything in the world is marred by sin. No part of your life is perfect because nothing in this world is perfect. The weather is broken. The economy is broken. Your body is broken. Your relationships are broken. Nothing about life on Earth is perfect—so nothing in your life will ever be perfect. God sent Jesus as your Savior. Jesus came to save you from your sin and for heaven—but also to save you from yourself. When you accept Jesus as your Savior, he can change those cards you’ve been dealt into a winning hand. You will give an account to God of how you lived your life. God won’t judge you based on someone else’s hand. But he does expect you to play the hand you’re dealt in life to the best of your ability and to make the most of what you’ve got. The Bible tells you how to become all God created you to be. In other words, the Bible gives you what you need to win the game with the hand you’ve been dealt. Here are five things that make you uniquely you—chemistry, connections, circumstances, consciousness, and choices. When you understand your unique, complex identity, then you can begin to make changes to become all God created you to be.
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“I will live in perfect freedom, because I try to obey your teachings.”
Psalm 119:45 (GNT) Pretending to be someone you’re not is exhausting, isn’t it? Too many people have spent so much of their lives pretending that they don’t remember who they really are anymore. They’ve spent all their energy and effort trying to fake their way through life, thinking it will give them the life they want. If that’s you, then you’re in a prison of pretending. And you’ve locked yourself in this prison for two main reasons. First, you’re trying to please people. The Bible tells you how foolish this is: “It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the LORD, you are safe” (Proverbs 29:25 GNT). Second, you feel like you need to be perfect to be loved. Since no one is perfect, you’ll never feel truly loved if perfectionism is snaring you. You make up for this by living in a pretend world, where you never make mistakes. Even worse, as you’re hard on yourself, you’re also harsh on others. Everyone ends up in your prison. Jesus once said of people who pretend to be something they’re not, “You are the ones who make yourselves look right in other people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For the things that are considered of great value by people are worth nothing in God’s sight” (Luke 16:15 GNT). What’s the cure for a life of pretending to be something you’re not? Switch your focus to what God thinks. God is the only one who knows you completely and loves you unconditionally. If you’re doing what God wants, then you’re doing what’s right. The psalmist says of this kind of focus, “I will live in perfect freedom, because I try to obey your teachings” (Psalm 119:45 GNT). You don’t need to scroll on your phone to find out who you really are. Social media can’t tell you how much you’re really loved. Only God can tell you the truth about who you are—and that will set you free. “It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the LORD, you are safe.”
Proverbs 29:25 (GNT) Every time you make a decision based on what other people will think, you sow seeds for failure in your life. You may not realize it, but fearing the disapproval of others causes more problems in your life than almost anything else. When you worry about what other people think, you tend to do the popular thing, even if you know it’s wrong. You make commitments that you can’t possibly keep, simply because you’re trying to make everybody happy. This is a recipe for failure. And it’s one of the reasons Peter failed Jesus by denying him three times. He was more concerned with what other people thought than with being faithful to Jesus. The Bible says, “But Peter followed along at a distance and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s palace. He went in and sat down with the guards to see what was going to happen . . . While Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, a servant girl came up to him and said, ‘You were with Jesus from Galilee.’ But in front of everyone Peter said, ‘That isn’t so! I don’t know what you are talking about!’” (Matthew 26:58, 69-70 CEV). Peter had just spent three years with Jesus, the Son of God. But the first time he had a chance to acknowledge this privilege, instead he denied Jesus. Peter was more worried about what other people thought than he was about identifying with Christ. Think of how many times you’ve had the opportunity to share Christ and said nothing because you were worried about what other people would think. Whose opinion matters to you more than God’s? When you let someone else be more important than God, they become your god. That’s called an idol—and that’s a setup for failure. The fear of disapproval always comes from a hidden wound. Maybe it was a rejection in the past. It might be an unmet need or a trauma you experienced growing up. It’s a deep pain, so deep it’s hidden in you. I call it soul pain. That soul pain is always related to your identity. If you don’t know who you are, you will be manipulated by the disapproval of other people the rest of your life. You won’t stand up for what you believe or do what’s right. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:25, “It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the LORD, you are safe” (GNT). When you recognize the hidden wounds in your life, God can begin to heal them. And you can live in the freedom of knowing that God’s opinion matters most. “Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me."
John 15:4 (GW) On the night before his death, Jesus instructed his followers: “Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me” (John 15:4 GW). Jesus says that being spiritually connected is like being attached to a vine. You’re not going to have any fruitfulness or productivity in your life if you’re out there on your own. You’ve got to stay connected to the body of Christ. In plants, a disconnected branch can’t bear fruit. It’s the same for you. When you’re not spiritually connected, you not only start to whither and die, but you also don’t have any productivity in your life. Every spring I grow a lot of vegetables and fruit. But if I cut off a branch, those branches don’t produce tomatoes or anything else. They’ve got to be connected in order to produce fruit. What kind of fruit should you produce when you are connected to the body of Christ? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV). I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be more loving. I’d like to be more joyful. I’d like to be more at peace, no matter what happens to the economy. I’d like to be more kind to people who are mean to me. I’d like to be a good person. I want to be faithful and keep my promises. I’d like to be gentle with people who are not very gentle. And I’d like to have more self-control. That’s called the fruit of the Spirit, and it’s the evidence that you are spiritually connected. If you are not seeing yourself grow in all these things, guess what? It means you’re not spiritually connected. God says spiritual connection is essential. In fact, you’re not going to have any fruitfulness or productivity in your life if you’re out there on your own. I’ve got to be connected to the body of Christ. You’ve got to be connected to the body of Christ. We’re simply better together. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
Romans 8:11 (NLT) As believers, we have hope because we are going to live forever. Death is not the end. There is more to the story! One day your heart will stop beating, and that will be the end of your body. But it’s not going to be the end of you. You were made in God’s image. You were made to last forever. This is not all there is. Why do we have hope? Because no matter how bad it seems on earth, it’s just for a while. When you have faith in Jesus, you know you’re going to spend trillions of years on the other side of eternity with no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more sickness, no more suffering. The Bible says in Romans 8:11, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (NLT). You probably know there's a difference between people with hope and those without when it comes to funerals. You can see it in their eyes, the terror in the eyes of people without hope. They’re thinking, “This is all I have. It’s over. I will never see this person again. It’s done. That’s all there is to life.” You might compare that to the people at funerals of a believer. They know this is just a transition step. Their loved one is entering real life! They’re going to be with God for eternity. There is grief, of course, but also hope, because they know they will be reunited one day with their loved one who followed Jesus. For a believer, death is not leaving home—it’s a homecoming. Do you have that hope, knowing you’ll spend eternity with Jesus Christ? If not, don’t delay. Make that decision today. “Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable.”
1 Peter 2:4 (GNT) God says that you’re accepted—and that you’re valuable! How much do you think you’re worth? We're not talking about your net worth; we're talking about your self-worth. Don’t ever confuse your tangible valuables with your value as a person. Being rich or poor has nothing to do with your worth as a person. Two things determine value in life:
The Bible says, “You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to him” (1 Corinthians 7:23 TLB). You belong to God, and Jesus paid for you with his life. The cross proves your value. Nobody has ever paid a greater ransom than God paid for you! You’re acceptable, and you’re valuable. Peter uses the imagery of a building project to illustrate your value. He paints a picture of God constructing a stone building. That building represents the church, the family of God. Peter says, “Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable” (1 Peter 2:4 GNT). Jesus is the living stone. He was perfect, but some people still rejected him. You may think, “If I could just be perfect, then I would be accepted.” No! Jesus was perfect, but even he wasn’t accepted by everyone. Yet he was “chosen by God as valuable.” You are one of God’s chosen, valuable stones too. When you gave your life to Christ, you became a building block in God’s great plan. The next time you’re questioning your own self-worth, remember that Jesus thought you were worth his life, and you’re now forever part of God’s family. “No one can serve two masters.”
Luke 16:13 (NIV) When you’re always worried about what other people think of you, you can’t be what God wants you to be. But, when you learn to think like Jesus, you won’t worry about pleasing everyone. Jesus had the right focus. He was only concerned with pleasing God. Jesus was never manipulated by crowds or by the approval or the disapproval of anybody else. He lived for an audience of one: “I try to please the One who sent me” (John 5:30 NCV). When you have the mind of Christ, that’s what you do. Wouldn’t it simplify your life to live for an audience of one? If God likes what you’re doing, then you know you’re doing the right thing. God says in Matthew 3:17, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (NIV). Jesus was obviously doing it right. The truth is, you can’t please everybody. Even God can’t please everybody! When someone prays for it to be sunny, somebody else is praying for it to rain. Somebody is praying for their team to do well, and someone else wants the opposing team to win. You can’t please everybody. Luke 16:13 says, “No one can serve two masters” (NIV). You have to decide whose approval you’re going to seek—God’s approval or other people’s approval. Are you going to live for what other people think or what God thinks? When you’re always looking for validation from other people, it means you don’t really realize who you are. You don’t understand what God made you to do or believe that he is always with you. Jesus never let someone else’s approval or a fear of rejection control him. He wasn’t out to win a popularity contest. He didn’t need other people’s opinions to validate himself. When you have the mind of Christ, you will be so secure in your identity, your purpose, and God’s presence in your life that you won’t need to look to other people for approval. “Don't pay attention to everything people say.”
Ecclesiastes 7:21 (GNT) What makes social media so addictive? Why do you have to go back and check a picture 50 times after you post? Why are you constantly checking your phone? Everybody wants the approval of others. People desperately need to be liked! When you hear the “ding” of a notification, dopamine is released in your brain, and it’s extremely satisfying. Every “ding” feeds your need for approval, and it feels like you can’t get enough. But the Bible says, “Dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith” (James 2:1 The Message). The truth is that public opinion doesn’t have anything to do with your faith. So don’t let public opinion decide what you believe, feel, or do. It will never lead you in the direction of Jesus Christ. The Bible also says in Ecclesiastes 7:21, “Don’t pay attention to everything people say” (GNT). Even when you make the wisest, happiest, most encouraging social media post, some people still will post comments that will not meet your expectations or may just be downright mean. If you make the post because you need a certain number of likes to feel better about yourself, then you are going to be disappointed. When you’re not living for the approval of others, though, what one person says on social media is not going to make or break you. Everyone wants the approval of others. But living for the approval of One will help you use social media as a useful tool and not a crutch. “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
Colossians 2:9-10 (NLT) Most people have no idea what success really is. Some people think it means you make a lot of money. But you can make a ton of money and be an absolute failure. Some people think it means being famous. But you can be famous and totally miss the point of life. So what is real success? The Bible says real success is being who God made you to be. It means you’re not trying to be somebody else or what your parents wanted you to be. You’ll only find real success when you spend your life as the person God created you to be. If you try to be somebody else in life, you are absolutely going to fail, because you can’t be anybody but you. Be who God made you to be. Be who you are in Christ. “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:9-10 NLT). God came to Earth in human form two thousand years ago so you could be made complete in Christ. That means you have everything you need through Jesus’ authority and power. If you look around, you’re going to notice that you may not have the same gifts, talents, or opportunities as other people, and that can be frustrating—if you think being a success is being somebody else. When you understand that a successful life is being who God made you to be, then you will be amazed at the things God will do through you! You lack nothing to be a success in life because success is being you. In other words, being successful in life means you are being yourself, the person God made you to be. Don’t get hung up on what other people think about you and instead focus on your audience of one: God. God shaped you and equipped you and, in Christ, has given you everything you need to be successful. “For it is from God alone that you have your life through Christ Jesus. He showed us God’s plan of salvation; he was the one who made us acceptable to God; he made us pure and holy and gave himself to purchase our salvation.”
1 Corinthians 1:30 (TLB) Most people spend their entire lives trying to be accepted. You may wear the clothes you wear or drive the car you drive because you want to be accepted. The friends you choose, the food you eat, and what you say on the Internet are often motivated by a massive need for acceptance. But, friend, you’re already accepted by the God who created you. “For it is from God alone that you have your life through Christ Jesus. He showed us God’s plan of salvation; he was the one who made us acceptable to God; he made us pure and holy and gave himself to purchase our salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:30 TLB). You didn’t earn God’s acceptance. God freely gave it to you. He alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. And Jesus is the one who made you acceptable to God. How did Jesus make you acceptable to God? Well, first, here’s the age-old problem: God is perfect, and people are not. So how could a perfect God let imperfect people into a perfect place called heaven? Something had to happen. God took care of the problem. He came to Earth as a man in the form of Jesus Christ and died for your sin. This is called grace, redemption, or being rescued by God. The theological term is justification, where God makes you clean and perfect in his eyes, no matter what you’ve done. God sent his Son to die for you so that you would be acceptable to him. So, if God has accepted you, why do you need the approval of other people? One of the most liberating things in life is to finally believe that you don’t need other people’s approval to be accepted and to be happy. You are chosen, you are loved, and you are accepted. Let this truth lead you into a joyful, purpose-filled life. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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