And neither am I.
"You go girl!" "You've got this one, man!" "This is the way God made me..." "Don't let anyone tell you different." "Just look inside yourself and you'll find the strength you need." "I'm affirming my own self worth."
Or as Stuart Smalley from Saturday Night Live said years ago, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me." (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY)
Ugh!
Our world is overflowing with bumper sticker slogans and feel good platitudes designed to make us feel fantastic about ourselves. Spend ten minutes on your Facebook newsfeed and try to tell me differently. If we don't count the cat pictures and game advertisements, a sizable portion of the pictures, posters and status updates focus on issues of esteem, identity and self. Truth be told, we already feel pretty darn good about ourselves; the incessant reminders to feel great are really only our clever marketing plan to sell an even better feeling about who we are. And we are a voluntarily captive market! Even the self-loathing among us are narcisists. At the end of the day, those who think too highly of themselves and those who think too little of themselves have both thought too much and too often of themselves. We live in a society that worships self. A society that has decided to worship the creature instead of the creator. Rom. 1:25. Sociologists who understand truth call this worldview "anthropocentric," man at the center. Man on the throne of his own heart. Man as king.
This is a problem.
"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." Rom. 12:3
Instead, scripture says that we should be "theopocentric," God at the center. Man is to be overthrown by the real King. The throne belongs to Him.
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31
"For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. 6:20
and
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Col. 3:17
Quite simply, worship is a foregone conclusion. We were made to worship. We WILL worship. There will be a king on the throne of our lives. The question is what or whom will we worship. The creature or the creator. Us or Him. God or man. A quick reality check is provided by reviewing your resources. On what do you spend your time, money, emotions, thoughts, and energy? An honest assessment will result in a clear picture of your God; whom you worship. Have we each remade God in our own image? What does your polaroid tell you?
There's a choice. There is always a choice. Intuitively, we know this. We may choose to ignore the truth, but it is still the truth. In many of his writings, John Piper articulates the decision to be made as follows:
“The question is, Do you feel more loved by God when he makes much of you, or do you feel more loved by God when He frees you and enables you, at great cost to His Son’s life, to enjoy making much of Him forever?
Let me shorten it down so you can hear the essence of it. Do you feel more loved by God because he makes much of you or because he enables you to make much of him?” Excerpt From John Piper's contribution to Giglio, Louie, "PASSION."
Do we want to spend our lives making much of ourselves, feeling loved only when others, including God, make much of us? Or will we spend our lives making much of God Himself? Who will we declare as the sovereign of our heart, mind, body and soul? Will we insist that God, like self and others, worship us? Or will we choose to worship Him.
He is the creator; we are the creation. "But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?'" Rom. 9:20. He is intrinsically valuable; He is value Himself. Ours comes only from Him and His good declaration. "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?" Isaiah 45:9. Nonetheless, we are chosen (John 15:16, Eph 1:4) and we are loved (John 3:16) by the Potter.
We, then, are not valuable but rather valued.
“But does God’s love make me valuable? Answer: No. That message is not in the Bible. There is nothing in us that makes us valuable. The fact that God values us says something about God. It says nothing about us. God did not set His love upon you because you have something going on that your next-door neighbor doesn’t. We are not valuable in ourselves..." James Macdonald, "Gripped by the Greatness of God."
Can you image Family Christian Stores selling a t-shirt that reads, "I think too much of myself and so do you?" How about a viral post that says, "I must decrease so that Jesus can increase?" (John 3:30). Perhaps the new Chris Tomlin single will include the lines, "I'm not enough/It's not about me/I'm not valuable/Like momma said I'd be."
And yet, that is the truth of the matter. Our worth is determined by WHOSE we are; it is not created by WHO we are. This value is given to us, not generated within us, by the one who is supremely valuable and makes the only real declaration of goodness. Gen. 1:31. He values us. We are valuable only because we are valued. Apart from Him we are nothing.
So, let's spend our time making much of Him, not making much of ourselves. Let's not think of ourselves more highly than we ought but rather always retain our God, the truly valuable, in our thoughts. Let's rejoice in the knowledge that we do not need to strive to create our own worth. Instead, let us praise the one who has given us value because we are valued by Him. Amen.
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Location:Burnett Ln,Vincennes,United States
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