Jon toils over his blueberry plants to produce a bountiful, flavorful yield. All who try his berries say they’ve never tasted better. Recently, a visiting youngster stuffed blueberries in his little belly until his navel popped out, saying, “I don’t care if I’m full, I’m gonna keep eating them ‘cuz they’re so good.” 15 minutes later he leaned against his mom, holding his stomach and groaning.
We’ve been there, gorging on pleasure and ending up in misery.
How well do we know ourselves?
I Googled the words FIND YOUR TRUE SELF, and here’s what popped up…
“Finding your True Self means becoming aware of those around you, what makes you happy, and what does not. When you feel good about yourself and when you don’t. … Look around you and inside yourself and you will begin to find your True Self.”
6 ways to find your true self, www.lifeandrelationships101.com, Jun 21, 2019
Do you know yourself better now?
In my experience, there’s a fine line between happiness and misery, and the pleasant-medium drifts as the wind, transitory, unpredictable, and never the same.
How might we move away from defining ourselves by fleeting feelings, toward a firm sense of our identity?
“[The most hidden and vital portion of the man], this God doth not only inspect and visit, but it is His own; He is as much at home there as a landlord on his own estate, or a proprietor in his own house.”
Spurgeon, Charles H.. Psalm 139. Chapel Library.
To know ourselves, we must grow intimately acquainted with our creator.
Why did God make us in his image?
So we can identify with him and recognize his power and characteristics.
“God created us for one reason: to know Him and love Him and have fellowship with Him.”
Billy Graham
To unite with God, we need the capacity to perceive at least some of his glorious attributes. As we expand our knowledge of him, our means of relating to him develop.
We only discover ourselves through an intimate relationship with our maker.
Even though we do not fully see him now, God calls us to draw near to him and he will draw near to us (James 4:9). God restores our core identity when we rest in his presence and develop his loving characteristics.
Take away thoughts on identity:
- False ideas about our identity wear us down.
- Wrong thoughts about who we are lead to distorted values and spiritually draining complications.
- We are not yet our true selves.
- The key to finding our true selves starts with finding out why God invented us and how the antagonistic force of evil distorts our true identity.
- God made us in his image so we can unite with him in love.
- Our firm sense of identity rests in the transformative work of our creator’s hands.
In the next post, we’ll look at escaping the fatigue of pretense, such as masking our pain, pretending all is well, and hiding our hard realities.
Hint: No “gut spilling” necessary.
Anonymous