2 Cor 10:12-13 For we dare not compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise! (NKJV)

In this verse, Paul the apostle is speaking about a clique of people in the church at Corinth who are judging each other by the standards of the world! The world eulogizes people’s success by their riches, intelligence, physical beauty, family name, giftedness etc, etc!

Is this how we judge ourselves today. Do we measure ourselves against others who are more richer, intelligent or beautiful than we are! If so we are judging by a standard that leads to covetousness, discontent, bitter disappointment and hopelessness!

We are seeking to find identity and security in what we do – not in who we are!

The New Covenant teaches that as sons of God, we find identity and security in Christ!

In Christ we learn that the Father loves us for who we are not for what we can do! Before Jesus had performed a miracle or commenced His ministry, His Father affirmed Him with these words: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

Jesus’s identity as a Son was found in being loved for who He was – not for what He could do!   

STOP READING AND ASK THE FATHER TO REVEAL HIS LOVE TO YOU!

1 Jn 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us! (NKJV)

Gal 2:20 I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (NKJV)

Comparing ourselves with others breeds a competitive spirit and discontent! We strive to keep up with the Joneses, we want others to see us as cool, but inwardly we are restless, jealous and dissatisfied with life!

Question: Why am I living like this?   Answer: I am not trusting God to provide for me, to make a way for me, hence I am not living in Christ’s rest!

Mt 11:28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (THE MESSAGE)

MEDITATION POINT: Prayer – Father, give me an awareness to recognise those times when self effort, pressure and stress are driving me to perform, that I may cease from striving, put You first and trust in You to make a way for me!

Phil 4:8 Meditate (think) on these things.

 

 

 

 

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SELF HELP or JESUS HELP

Jn 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life!”

The book market today has a plethora of ‘self-help‘ books! How to be a better leader, manager or person. How to exercise, diet and improve ones life!

Such books and guru’s encourage us to feel good about ourselves, release our inner strength, believe for good things, do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

Question: Why are these books dangerous for Christians?

Answer: The danger is in the ethos, ‘self-help‘ Such books encourage us to build a life of our own making, overcome in our own strength, see ourselves as our own ‘Saviour’, thus making ourselves into little gods! (Gen 3:4,5)

Col 2:8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

Whereas the New Covenant invites us to find such life in Christ:

Col 2:6,7 Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him.

Christ is our Saviour and God, our life, strength, healer, helper, deliverer and future hope.

Jn 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.  Col 2:10 You are complete in Him.

 

BY THEIR FRUITS YOU WILL KNOW THEM (Mt 7:20)   

Driven to Extremes:

Using ‘self-help’ philosophy to build our life upon drives to 2 extremes:

a) We win, we’re successful, we’ve reached our goal, we’re elated, pleased with ourselves!

b) We lose, we fail, we fall away. We’re defeated, hopeless, miserable, depressed!

Jer 17:5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man (self) and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.

Both these extremes are rooted in pride! It is our ‘self ability’ that has either won or lost and constitutes both these ways as dead works!

Does that mean the ‘self-help’ industry cannot help the believer. Of course not! Much of self help material contains biblical principles! The key is to first pass all things through the grid of trusting Christ.

We look away from self to Christ. Hence, when we win, we praise and honour Him. When we lose, we look to Him to help us rise up and praise Him for His strength and hope!

Jer 17:7,8  “Blessed is the man who trusts and hopes in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river. Its leaf will be green, and it will not cease from yielding fruit!

Phil 4:8 Meditate (think) on these things.

MEDITATION POINT:  Let us pass everything we do through the grid of trusting Jesus! He is the only one to proclaim, “I am the way the truth and the life.” (Jn 14:6)

 

 

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In 1 Samuel Ch 17 when Saul gave permission for David to fight Goliath, David was still in his teens, wore no armour and had no battle experience.

How could this young man defeat a giant who was 10 ft tall, covered in armour and battle hardened?

 The Holy Spirit has purposely put this story in scripture because it describes perfectly God’s way to bring down the giants in our lives. Giants of debt, fear, sickness, in fact anything that we think is a giant!

 1 Sam 17:40Then he (David) took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.

 David’s weapons were a sling and 5 smooth stones which he had chosen out of a stream.

 The number 5 in scripture symbolises ‘grace’. Grace is the unearned, unmerited, undeserved favour of God and is something we receive through trusting God.

 Hence when David confronted Goliath, he said to him:

1 Sam 17:45  “You Come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts!”  (NKJV)

 David had got his priorities in the right place. He was prepared with a sling and a stone  but his trust was in The name of the Lord of hosts. So when David slung the stone at Goliath, it wasn’t his expertise that found the spot marked X on Goliath’s forehead – No – the stone was directed there by the Holy Spirit!

 David had released grace by trusting In God alone. He had earlier recounted to Saul how he had first learned to trust in God:

 1 Sam 17:36  “Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God!”

 Trusting in God is a process and something we build upon. David had first learned to trust God to kill the lion and the bear and now he was ready to step up to a new level of trust and kill a giant!

 Today God is calling His Church to trust Him and release His grace to bring down the giants in our lives, and like David to learn how to kill the lion and the bear. To trust Him in the small things of life and build our trust to bring down the giant.

 Question: How do we exercise trust in God?

 Answer: We trust in God through His word.

 Are we worried? God’s word tells us to be: ‘Anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God‘. (Phil 4:6)

 Are we fearful? God’s word tells us that: ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind‘. (2 Tim 1:7)

 Do we feel guilty or condemned? God’s word tells us that: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus‘. (Rom 8:1)

 These are the every day places where we can exercise trust in God and see His grace released to bring down the giants in our lives.

 Meditation Point: Lord Jesus, help me to learn to trust You through Your word that I might see a release of your grace in my life to bring down the giants! Thank You Lord!

 

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