2015. Brand
new year, brand new start.
Right now, my social media feeds are flooded with
inspirational quotes encouraging women, sparking them to believe in themselves
and their ability to change this year, as well as their ability to stick to the
things that they have set their minds on to accomplish.
Be it losing weight,
saving money, finishing school, writing a book...honestly, I am not sure it even
matters what the goal is – it is all about you, girl. Right?
Well,
maybe not.
Just for clarity’s sake, let me stop for a second to elaborate on what I mean
when I speak of the self-esteem, “believe in yourself” message. Self-esteem is
defined as “confidence in one’s own worth
or abilities.” In the secular world, it plays a really big role in
motivation, which is why memes are popping up all over Facebook and Instagram
right around this time of year with sayings like, ‘Be your own motivation’ and ‘Repeat
after me: You Can Do This!”
Now, some people might say these messages are not a bad thing. After all, so
much of this modern culture is trying to beat women down with photoshopped
images of unrealistic women promoting unattainable perfection. They advertise
so many products to improve ourselves – hair dyes, waxes, weight loss pills,
wrinkle cream, etcetera, etcetera - that I cannot even count. Women could use
someone reminding them that they are beautiful, I agree. But the fault in this
kind of “You can do it!” message is
perfectly summed up in this quote from Alistair Begg:
To
believe in Jesus means to quit believing in myself…to quit relying on anything
that I believe would make me acceptable before God.
I used to be all about this, but the Lord has brought me to
a new place where I simply cannot not get behind the “Believe in yourself” mantra and promote dependency on Christ at the
same time. They completely contradict each other. The scriptures are very clear
in this:
He must
become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. (John 3:30 NLT)
Ladies, I have to be real with you: You cannot do this. Do not believe in yourself. It is a direct lie
from the enemy trying to get you to take your eyes off of Jesus and cause you
to fail. Because the more you fail, the more you will begin to doubt the power
of God. There is no fruit to be born or harvested in trusting in our own
abilities, and it is time we come to grips with this truth. Put not your confidence in yourself, but
rather put your confidence in God’s ability to work through you.
Each
time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So
now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can
work through me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT)
We are
made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for
everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all
fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness,
declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed
us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for
our sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed
His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when
He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was
looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God
did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and
He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we
boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our
acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.” (Romans
3:22-27 NLT)
I am not telling you this to discourage you, but rather to
encourage you. There is a hope and a promise that, even though we will
continuously fail to attain perfection, perfection itself has already been
attained for us so that we do not have to. "'Not
by might nor by power but by My Spirit,' says the Lord God Almighty," (Zechariah 4:6 ASV).
And I paraphrase…
So if
the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the
perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood,
with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and
Aaron?...Yes the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it
was weak and useless. For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have
confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God… Jesus is the
one who guarantees this better covenant with God…because Jesus lives forever,
His priesthood lasts forever. Therefore He is able, once and forever, to save
those who come to God through Him. He lives forever to intercede with God on
their behalf. He is the kind of High Priest we need because He is holy and
blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been
given the highest place of honor in heaven. Unlike those other high priests, he
does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins
first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when
he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins. The law appointed high priests who were
limited by human weakness. But after the law was given, God appointed his Son
with an oath, and his Son has been made the perfect High Priest forever. (Hebrews 7:11-28 NLT)
I believe with my whole heart that it is time we really
start to check our hearts. Are the messages that say we can do it all, that we
are strong and able, that we should believe in our abilities to do whatever we
set our hearts on and anything else we can lump into those seemingly
encouraging statements, the the kinds of messages we were warned about in 2
Timothy 4:3-4?
For a
time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome
teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who
will teach them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the
truth and chase after myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NLT)
It feels good to think we can, I will admit it. I am with you; it feels good to
hear that we are able and we are strong and we can. But without Jesus, we can do nothing. Jesus told us so: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you
remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing,” (John 15:5 NIV). Saying, believing, and preaching otherwise would
be to put ourselves in a lofty place that we do not belong, and though it
sounds harsh to say, it makes us our own idols. And there is nothing good or
Godly for us on the other side of that.
For
those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12 NIV)
Something interesting to note about this particular scripture is though
we are not able to do anything without Jesus, to ‘humble ourselves’ implies
that it is by our choice or by our doing to do this. But because of our own
sinful nature, we even need Jesus to do this, because it is our flesh that
cries out in greed for control of our own lives. Submission is our choice, but
we need Him to help us with that, too. He is so good to us that way. And even
though we are warned that when we exalt ourselves that God will surely humble
us, Jesus offers us this amazing promise that if we humble ourselves before
Him, He will exalt us. Our glory is in heaven, it is not here. Our ability is
there, it is not here. We are not able to do this – He is. He is God alone and there is none like Him (1 Samuel 2:2,
Jeremiah 10:6, 1 Chronicles
17:20,
Deuteronomy 33:26, Isaiah 45:5-6, Ephesians 4:6, John 1:1-4, and 1
Timothy 1:17).
You are
worthy because He said you are.
You are able because He is doing through you.
And you are justified because of His grace.
But it is all about Him.
You are able because He is doing through you.
And you are justified because of His grace.
But it is all about Him.
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