What is it for you? I am convinced we all have something. What is it that you constantly battle, that you can never seem to totally defeat, that just when you think you have it licked, it rears its ugly head again?
Some people call them our signature sins, things that get in the way of us being all that God wants us to be. For me it is the sin of believing that what I do and accomplish defines me. People will like me and approve of me if I do things that they find helpful. My performance will win people over. And I need to win them over with my performance, because who could simply accept me for who I am?
I learned this lie early in my life. If I performed well in school, people accepted and liked me. If I didn’t, they didn’t. If I excelled in athletics people wanted me on their team, they applauded my performance, they chose me to be their friend.
Who I was as a person, how I felt, my inner self, was discounted and ignored. I came to believe that if I didn’t perform well, I would disappear.
It was when I was in college that I first experienced people who cared about me as a person, not as a performer. The irony was that it was people for whom I was performing who cared more about me as a person. My professors and coaches in college helped me wrestle with my inner world, my personal identity outside of performance. They helped me to understand that God accepted and loved me for who I was, not for how I performed.
This week I thought about that when my devotional book took me to Matthew 4:1-11 where Jesus was “...led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus was tempted in the three areas of life where we are tempted every day. He was tempted to turn stones into bread...to do a physical miracle that would meet his own needs at the time. He was tempted to jump off the highest point of the temple where God would save him...to perform, to do something spectacular, to gain followers. He was tempted to receive power and prestige by compromising His commitment to God; to, in effect, sell His soul to the devil.
Jesus defeated each temptation with scripture. The bible teaches us God’s perspective and desires for us. It gives us the ammo to defeat daily temptations to turn our back on him.
This was not the last time Jesus was tempted. It happened regularly in his ministry. It was part of his being fully human as well as fully divine. It is one of His points of identification with us.
“...we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
As Jesus goes about His ministry, he continually runs into these same three temptations in one way or another. So why do I think it should be different for me? My need for approval periodically rears its ugly head and gets me off balance until God puts me back on track.
I need to remember that God cares a lot more about who I am than how I perform for others. I need to remember that my identity is found in my relationship with Christ, not with people’s approval. I need to remember that this temptation will be with me for a long time and the only way to defeat it is to stay anchored in Christ and God’s word!
No comments:
Post a Comment