“…since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God…”
(Romans 3:23, AMP)
It is good to know where we fall short as a sinner. Let’s make it personal: Why do you need God? What has He saved you from? Yes, our salvation in God saves our soul from eternal separation from Him, but what are your personal sins? If we can’t answer those two questions above, then we see no need for the Savior to rule and reign in our life. He desires a personal relationship with us, so our answers will be personal, reflecting who we are with and without Him.
What are some of my personal sins?
-I limit God and all the things He can do in my life. Because of this, I “light my own fires,” taking matters into my own hands instead of waiting on Him to do the impossible (Luke 1:37 and Isaiah 50:11, NIV).
-I need approval from others; I am a people pleaser. At times I have focused on man more than I have focused on God and what He wants me to do to please Him (Galatians 1:10, NIV).
-I fight God’s plans for my life and want my own way, a lot of the time; when I look around, I want my life to reflect something closer to what I see that others have rather than what God wants for me. In my discontentment, I deny His wisdom and discount His plans over my life (Romans 8:28; Romans 8:32; and Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).
-I look for my worth and value in the way others see me and treat me rather than believing in my worth and value in God. When I do this, I am led by my insecurities and feelings rather than ruled by the Spirit, setting my heart on things here and not above (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139:13-16; Romans 8:5-6; and Colossians 3:1-3, NIV).
Of the sins of mine that I mentioned above, I see a pattern: the focus and importance of man in my life. I have looked to man to fill the holes in my soul. I suppose I have been afraid if I reached out to God as my only Source, He couldn’t possibly fill all of my places of longing. Hence, I have questioned and doubted if God could be enough. In Blaise Pascal’s work Pensees, he states it best:
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself” (Pascal 75).
When not looking to God to fill those empty places in my soul, I have looked to other persons and/or things to do it. I have expected “that certain something” out of a person or “thing” that it was never created to give me. This would be one of those examples where I see my constant need for God’s redemption in my life. I have lost my purpose, vision, and identity when man becomes paramount and God’s destiny and redemption is diminished.
The Scriptures are clear about God’s role and His purpose for man. To put our trust in ourselves or in man is like leaning on a faulty reed that will bend and sway. Only God is constant and never changes, so He is the only one we should put our trust:
“Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail” (Psalm 146:3, TLB).
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” (Psalm 118:8, AMP).
“Stop believing in human beings as so amazing, so capable!
We are short-lived, only a breath from death and worth as much.
What makes us think we’re so special?” (Isaiah 2:22, VOICE).
“God is not a man– He doesn’t lie.
God isn’t the son of man to want to take back what He’s said,
Or say something and not follow through,
or speak and not act on it” (Numbers 23:19, VOICE).
“Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, AMP).
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17, NKJV).
Where humans may fail (every time), God will not fail (every time). It’s a guarantee. Where man is finite in relationship to each other, God is infinite in all ways in relationship to us. He is Provider, Healer, Father, Friend, Shepherd, and much more. He is the only One who can provide that primitive need within us for unfailing security.
My conflict comes from what man could do in my life and not trusting on what God will do. I am thankful for God’s grace as I break free from my web of struggles (Ephesians 2:8, NLT):
“For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help” (Psalm 22:24, NIV).
I am thankful for God’s long-term patience. He does not feel contempt or scorn when we don’t catch on immediately. Rather, His love toward us is everlasting, and His kindness toward us is unfailing (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV).
What is man that He chose us to hold His Spirit and to carry His name when we are all cracked pots of earth and clay?
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Ephesians 1:4, NLT).
“And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads” (Revelations 22:4, NLT).
“But this beautiful treasure is contained in us– cracked pots of earth and clay– so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7, VOICE).
We see our sin and know our struggles; He sees a blameless people He loved before the creation of the world, a people He entrusts to display His character in a way that surpasses the ordinary. He died for you and me, the righteous for the unrighteous, the godly for the ungodly. He promises full redemption in our temporal, corruptible state (1 Corinthians 15:53, AMP).
Today I embrace His constant redemption over my life, continually drawing me closer to Him when my heart wants to stray in setting up the idol of man in my heart. Today I trust that He will live up to His name in my life because He is everything I need.
Photo by Stefan Kunze on Unsplash