Tonight on the “The Voice Australia ™” the judging panel told a contestant he needed to be more self assured because he is really talented. They said he needed to “be himself and not try to be someone else“. His reply was tremendous.
I am being myself! This is what I am like. I am always unsure of myself.
The world does not like lack of self assurance, especially in a potential celebrity. But hey, it is from that place of self doubt that the artist digs deep to find answers for himself and others.
Those who are forgiven much love much said Jesus.
Blessed are the poor in spirit He said.
The self assured are sometimes the self deceived.
Paul said “He who thinks himself to be something when he is nothing deceives himself.”
You see our outer man may be a mess at times and confident at other times…but that is not where we get our full identity from.
It is the inner person of the heart that is our true nature and being.
And for the believer that means that Christ Jesus IS THAT INNER MAN.
Thus even though my outer man may appear to be unsure and timid and weak and lowly or self assured….it is my inner spirit man that is constantly resting in and finding it’s Life in Jesus.
We do not try to change our outer man in order to be pleasing to God. If He wants us to be a dithering idiot then that is what we shall stay. We can be an idiot for Him. The proud man shall quickly brush us off as unimportant and not someone he wants to be around. But other dithering idiots and weak minded people will find comfort by being with us, for Jesus is in us, being us.
We imagine that by coming to Jesus He is going to make us like Himself through giving us power to change our behaviour for the better. We see Him in the Scriptures and we see ourselves and the difference seems to be massive.
So we lament our weakness and our failings and desperately try to get some help from God to be a good person like we imagine Jesus did.
That is not how Jesus was or even now how He is.
Jesus meant it, really meant it when He said often The Son CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF.
He also admitted freely that there is no one who is good except God. There was nothing within Jesus himself separate from Father that had any ability to be good or to obey God. NOTHING!
But Jesus was not alone in himself was He? We know that. He was filled with God’s Person in His S/spirit.
Yet in being filled with God He did not view HImself as a separate entity from God, but as ONE perfect human being. His perfection was ALL because of Father in Him.
His ability was ALL because of FATHER in Him.
His wisdom and love and kindness and mercy were all there because of Father in Him. None of those fruits were his own as if they came from Jesus son of Mary after many years of saying no to his flesh and yes to God.
The OBEDIENCE God is looking for is not obeying rules but is an obedience of faith.
With our eyes we still see a weak human being when we see ourselves. We know that we fail daily to obey. But when we catch a hold of the thing God HImaself has done in us we REST in Him DESPITE the mess our outer man may be in.
This can be seen with Abraham…who did not consider his aging body..but walked by faith in what God had said of him.
What has God said of you and me?
The list is too long to put here but the bottom line is that He says we are perfect and just like Jesus.
So we do not spend any time trying to change our outer man. We look not at the things that are perishing and that are temporal. We look at Jesus. Where is He? In you of course. You are the visible manifestation of Jesus Christ in the heavens and the earth…right now…right here in this life. Yes we know that the contrary things about our humanity say the opposite….but His faith carries us and urges us to believe.
You can get on that works bandwagon and try to stop your fleshy self from manifresting. But when you think you have gotten rid of one button on your back…another button pops up some where else for the Devil to push. This is an endless cycle of distraction keeping you a slave to the Old Man who can never please God no matter how good he becomes. God KILLED YOUR OLD MAN AT THE CROSS!! So why are you trying to fix him up all the time. Let him be himself, but you come and follow Me says Jesus.
If you unsure of yourself all the time….no matter…be unsure but say of your unsure self that you are one with Jesus and held in Father’s heart of love. God will do any changing in your outer man only as you believe that you are conformed to His image right now.
