Here's a piece of self-talk that I am well-familiar with: self-importance. I love to think that I am important in the great or even small scheme of things. It may be my desire to put others down so I look better. It may be wanting the coach to play my child more often than he does. It may even be using the spiritual gifts God has given me to create an image for myself. How insidious Satan's lies are to our fallen minds and hearts. Shelly Beach calls it "stepping into the abyss of self". So true.
How do you promote yourself? Why do you do it? Isn't it interesting how strong our desire is to promote ourselves and how weak to promote our neighbors? Remember the Pharisees. They loved the greetings in the marketplace, they loved being seen praying, they loved practicing their righteousness for all to see. Why? Because they didn't understand that the better reward comes from the Lord of heaven and earth, who sees in secret; they thought the best rewards were the (perceived) accolades of their peers. Surely they didn't understand Psalm 8, which they must have known, and which reminds us of our smallness and God's graciousness in promoting us:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man
that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory
and honor (!!!) (exclamation points and emphasis mine).
Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession (1 Peter 2:9, emphasis mine). Now that's a promotion I can handle, one that does not require me to perform perfectly, look good, say the right things, even wear the right clothes and makeup. I did not earn it. Jesus earned it for me. Let us, therefore, proclaim the excellencies of him who called us our of darkness into his marvelous light (v. 9b).
Jacob's son Joseph knew all about God's promotions. Reread his amazing story in Genesis 38-41 to see his perseverance in the face of profound rejections, first from his brothers, who sold him into slavery, and then from his employer Potiphar, who had him thrown into prison when falsely accused of impropriety, and finally from Pharaoh's cupbearer, who promised to remember Joseph to Pharoah and promptly forgot. For thirteen years, Joseph served God without self-promotion, and "the Lord was with him, and showed him steadfast love" (39:21) and eventually promoted him to second in command in Egypt. This is the God we serve. These are the excellencies we must proclaim.
(In regards to the third paragraph) We often forget that the tangible things of this world are not all that there is. It is the intangible and unseen things that are important. We women get caught up in our weight, our hair design, our color of eyeliner. Those things are so miniscule compared to being a child of the KING! We need to get our focus out of the little things and focus on Jesus, remembering He has called us to be a chosen race!
ReplyDeleteI had a friend in college through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship who lived out 1 Peter 2:9. He always called his friends "fellow children of the King". But I think he went a little too far in buying himself a new suit (complete with new shoes!) every month! He reasoned that if he was a child of the King, then he was a prince, and ought to dress like one! But, we too can dress like royalty in keeping our appearance pleasant. We don't have to be fancy and new, just need to be good stewards of what the Lord has already given us.