“I don’t want to be _________________ any longer.”
Fill in the blank. Sinful. Angry. Single. Selfish. Hurt. Alone. Dry. Sick. Busy. Here.
There’s a word that we can all put in that blank. Something that we all tell God that we don’t want to be...
And it’s usually followed by a sentence that is cried out in frustration or desperation, that goes something like this....
“God, I want to be ________________!”
Content. Joyful. In community. There. Married. On the mountaintop. With my friends.
I wonder what would happen if we all stopped asking God when we are going to get what we want, and we are we going to stop being what we don’t want to be?
And instead we ask him to show us what we have now that is of value?
When we speak sentence #1, it brings dissatisfaction.
When we speak sentence #2, it defers our hope. (Proverbs 13:12)
When we ask Him to show us what we have now that is of value - it can only create praise and humble us to worship.
Worship is where we render our hearts to be transformed into His likeness. It doesn’t come from dissatisfaction, or hoping that when I get this or reach this place then things will be better.
We get too caught up in trying to fight who we are not made to be. We spend too many hours praying not to be something or somewhere.
Any time Jesus healed sickness in the Bible, He did not look at the sick person and say “Oh, you are very sick.” He looked at them and said, “You are healed!”
When Jesus tells the disciples to feed the five thousand, He doesn’t tell the disciples “Not enough food!” He says “We already have what we need!”
He didn’t look at the repentant thief hanging on the cross next to Him and say, “Now you! You were particularly sinful.” He says “You will surely be with me in paradise!”
He speaks who He created us to be, who He died for us to be -- NOT what we can see that we are in that moment.
Because we live by faith and not by sight.
Proverbs 23:7 As a man thinketh in his heart, so he will be...
I want to think about myself the way that Jesus thinks about me. I want to speak about myself the way that Jesus speaks about me. I want to believe about myself, what Jesus believes about me. That’s true humility. Seeing yourself how Jesus sees you.
I respect our older boys in our home beyond what words can ever describe. They are young men that walk with such faith, and are pioneering what the Doors home stands for. They’re like that first child in the family that the parents are still learning when that child falls you don’t need to always rush to their side. The parents are still learning that when that teenager asks to go to the library to study but has on her party clothes - you should probably say no. They are the guinea pigs.
We all know that. They know that. They rejoice through it, and most days do it gladly.
When I see one of them struggling with something, or hear a conversation going on about girls (that can sometimes happen when you have large amounts of teenage boys under one roof) I can begin to think, “What if they don’t turn out ok?”
I see their sin, and I want to panic! “What if we’ve messed this up?!” I want to fight that sin so that they can be who God has made them to be. (Disclaimer: I know they aren’t perfect, I’m not that dumb...)
Today I sat down to pray for these boys, and God spoke to me and said, “Speak over them as I speak over them. See them as I see them.” So instead of laboring hours praying “Jesus, let his eyes be fixed on you and not on girls.” or “God, take away his disobedience.” I just proclaimed, “Man of righteousness, man of humility, man of gentility, man of who serves the Lord with all He is, man who loves the Lord with all that’s within him...” and so on and so on....and I let the praise come forth.
Because I don’t want to spend too much time acknowledging who Satan is trying to make these boys, I would rather spend my time agreeing with God for who He has already made them to be.
That’s how we sin abolished in our lives and that’s when we see certain struggles coming to an end. When we combat them with praise. Proclaiming who God is and who we are, renews our minds.
This phrase is beautiful and you’ve probably heard it before, but let me tell it to you again.
We have to stop telling God how big our problem is, and tell the problem how big our God is.
