It’s Not All About You
My wife shared the following with me. I thought it was good and wanted to post it here:
“Lying on my desk are two advertisements–one for a national stationary supplier, the other for a large chain of retail stores. The headline for both ads reads:
The philosophy behind those ad campaigns is almost as old as the human race. In effect, that’s exactly what the Serpent said to Eve: ‘It’s all about you.’ It’s a campaign he has been running effectively ever since.
One writer observed that ‘to most people the greatest persons in the universe are themselves. Their lives are made up of endless variations on the word me.’
It’s true. In spite of all the talk about poor self-image, our instinctive reaction to life is self-centered: How does this affect me? Will this make me happy? Why did this have to happen to me? What does she/he think about me? It’s my turn. Where’s my share? Nobody cares about my ideas. She/He hurt my feelings. I’ve got to have some time for me. I need my space. She/He is not sensitive to my needs.
It’s not enough for us to be the center of our own universe. We want to be the center of everyone else’s universe as well–including God’s. When others don’t bow down before us and devote themselves to promoting our happiness and meeting our needs, we get hurt and start looking for alternate ways to fulfill our egocentric agenda.
You’d think the church would be the one place where things would revolve around God rather than man. But not necessarily so. In his book Finding God, Dr. Larry Crabb offers a penetrating analysis of the extent to which the evangelical church has given in to this deception:
‘Helping people to feel loved and worthwhile has become the central mission of the church. We are learning not to worship God in self-denial and costly service, but to embrace our inner child, heal our memories, overcome addictions, lift our depressions, improve our self-images, establish self-preserving boundaries, substitute self-love for self-hatred, and replace shame with an affirming acceptance of who we are.
Recovery from pain is absorbing an increasing share of the church’s energy. And that is alarming…
We have become committed to relieving the pain behind our problems rather than using our pain to wrestle more passionately with the character and purpose of God. Feeling better has become more important than finding God…
As a result, we happily camp on biblical ideas that help us feel loved and accepted, and we pass over Scripture that calls us to higher ground. We twist wonderful truths about God’s acceptance, His redeeming love, and our new identity in Christ into a basis for honoring ourselves rather than seeing those truths for what they are: the stunning revelation of a God gracious enough to love people who hated Him, a God worthy to be honored above everyone, and everything else.
…We have rearranged things so that God is now worthy of honor because He has honored us. ‘Worthy is the Lamb,’ we cry, not in response to His amazing grace, but because He has recovered what we value most: the ability to like ourselves. We now matter more than God.’
The apostle Paul understood that God does not exist for us, but that we exist for Him:
‘By Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.’
Colossians 1: 16-18
Why was Paul able to sing hymns to God in the middle of the night from the belly of a Roman dungeon? How could he stay faithful and ‘rejoice always,’ while being stoned, shipwrecked, lied about, and rejected by friends and enemies alike? How could he ‘rejoice always’ when he was hungry and tired? His secret was that he had settled the issue of why he was living. He was not living to please himself or to get his needs fulfilled. From the point of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he had one burning passion: to live for the glory and the pleasure of God. All that mattered to him was knowing Christ and making Him known to others.
‘I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.’
Acts 20:24
The bottom line for Paul was: ‘To live is Christ.’ Once that was settled, nothing else mattered much.”
~Nancy DeMoss
“Lying on my desk are two advertisements–one for a national stationary supplier, the other for a large chain of retail stores. The headline for both ads reads:
It’s all about you.
The philosophy behind those ad campaigns is almost as old as the human race. In effect, that’s exactly what the Serpent said to Eve: ‘It’s all about you.’ It’s a campaign he has been running effectively ever since.
One writer observed that ‘to most people the greatest persons in the universe are themselves. Their lives are made up of endless variations on the word me.’
It’s true. In spite of all the talk about poor self-image, our instinctive reaction to life is self-centered: How does this affect me? Will this make me happy? Why did this have to happen to me? What does she/he think about me? It’s my turn. Where’s my share? Nobody cares about my ideas. She/He hurt my feelings. I’ve got to have some time for me. I need my space. She/He is not sensitive to my needs.
It’s not enough for us to be the center of our own universe. We want to be the center of everyone else’s universe as well–including God’s. When others don’t bow down before us and devote themselves to promoting our happiness and meeting our needs, we get hurt and start looking for alternate ways to fulfill our egocentric agenda.
You’d think the church would be the one place where things would revolve around God rather than man. But not necessarily so. In his book Finding God, Dr. Larry Crabb offers a penetrating analysis of the extent to which the evangelical church has given in to this deception:
‘Helping people to feel loved and worthwhile has become the central mission of the church. We are learning not to worship God in self-denial and costly service, but to embrace our inner child, heal our memories, overcome addictions, lift our depressions, improve our self-images, establish self-preserving boundaries, substitute self-love for self-hatred, and replace shame with an affirming acceptance of who we are.
Recovery from pain is absorbing an increasing share of the church’s energy. And that is alarming…
We have become committed to relieving the pain behind our problems rather than using our pain to wrestle more passionately with the character and purpose of God. Feeling better has become more important than finding God…
As a result, we happily camp on biblical ideas that help us feel loved and accepted, and we pass over Scripture that calls us to higher ground. We twist wonderful truths about God’s acceptance, His redeeming love, and our new identity in Christ into a basis for honoring ourselves rather than seeing those truths for what they are: the stunning revelation of a God gracious enough to love people who hated Him, a God worthy to be honored above everyone, and everything else.
…We have rearranged things so that God is now worthy of honor because He has honored us. ‘Worthy is the Lamb,’ we cry, not in response to His amazing grace, but because He has recovered what we value most: the ability to like ourselves. We now matter more than God.’
The apostle Paul understood that God does not exist for us, but that we exist for Him:
‘By Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.’
Colossians 1: 16-18
Why was Paul able to sing hymns to God in the middle of the night from the belly of a Roman dungeon? How could he stay faithful and ‘rejoice always,’ while being stoned, shipwrecked, lied about, and rejected by friends and enemies alike? How could he ‘rejoice always’ when he was hungry and tired? His secret was that he had settled the issue of why he was living. He was not living to please himself or to get his needs fulfilled. From the point of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he had one burning passion: to live for the glory and the pleasure of God. All that mattered to him was knowing Christ and making Him known to others.
‘I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.’
Acts 20:24
The bottom line for Paul was: ‘To live is Christ.’ Once that was settled, nothing else mattered much.”
~Nancy DeMoss
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