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D-7844
Many of us have trouble accepting who we are, the way God has made us, and believing we are fearfully and wonderfully made, as the Psalmist wrote. When we don’t properly appreciate God’s creativity in us, we doom ourselves to be less than God has planned for us to be.
It has become cliché to hear people say they’re seeking to know “who they are.” Indeed, there were some years in my life that were consumed with a desire to find myself and know myself. If it is true that our union with Christ brings meaning and purpose into our lives, why are so many Christians still looking for themselves?
Here are my thoughts. I believe the humanistic philosophy of self-focus has penetrated our Christian teaching, and caused us to look at ourselves and to ourselves for answers; caused us to leave biblical principles and follow human psychological theories in order to find this meaning and purpose; and caused us to place far too much emphasis on the self-issues of the day.
You see how this can happen: Certainly, the Gospel is the good news that each individual is important to God; therefore, teachings which magnify the individual can easily be mistaken to have some biblical basis. There is a distinct line we need to understand between the value of individuals and the magnification of self.
If we are consumed with self, camouflaged as it might be by words which sound good to our ears, we are trapped into a self-focus which can be very confusing as well as damaging. Friends, you won’t find a self-focus taught in Scripture. Our identity is not found in making us feel better about ourselves.
We keep getting the cart before the horse. The knowledge we need of ourselves, and the esteem we need for ourselves come as by-products of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. There is abundant evidence all around us that self-magnification hasn’t worked. I encourage you to search your own mind and clean out the misconceptions which may be there in this search for identity.