Becoming my best self?

Libraries and book stores have large sections of ‘self-help’ books, mostly about how to look out for me, how to make things happen, and how to be my very best self. After being a Christian for more than fifty years, and even after making many decisions to improve myself, I am totally aware that my best self is totally inadequate. 

Aside from sin (which the Bible defines as ‘going my own way’), living a self-directed life doesn’t work anyway. Most people struggle with their yearly resolutions, plus I have enough ADHD combined with a bit of autism to make focusing a challenge. I’m easily distracted, and no matter how hard I try, sticking to even a short to-do list is tough. I also crave simplicity and struggle with interruptions.

Piper says this about the biblical reality of being my best self:  

True selfhood flourishes in covenant faithfulness. By “true” I mean the self that has been created in Christ Jesus and is being transformed into his likeness. For example, Paul says in Colossians 3:9–10, “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self.” 

He refers this to keeping promises, making resolutions, and trying to stay on track. In myself, I cannot do it. In Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit that governs that new nature, I can — but only then. My true self does not emerge or flourish in a life governed by self-gratification. It only flourishes when I have yielded to the Spirit and do what He tells me. This is true covenant keeping, a life under the guidance of God rather than life run by whatever strikes me as important.

Thinking about this today, I have several household chores, dozens of quilts either in progress or on my to-do list, plus a long list of undone stuff like hang a few pictures, purge the storage room, harvest more lettuce from my backyard planter, and go across the street for a few groceries. When I walk into my study, I see books unread and a host of other things on the go, or waiting to get to the start line. Add a touchy Achilles tendon that hampers walking and the desire to pray and exercise. Then there is that soup cooling on the counter that needs to be strained and put in the fridge, never mind the bathrooms need attention along with four loads of laundry. 

Sometimes I use a priority chart and after numbering chores, I just start at the top — and get the last one checked off — if nothing distracts me, like a phone call or a visit from a neighbor. The positive in all this is the realization that self-effort is useless. Without the Holy Spirit, I would sit in front of the TV, or read, or have a nap, or not do anything.

Is it only those with youthful energy and no attention-deficit issues that can live an orderly life without relying on God? I know age nor human inabilities are not the issue. It is always sin: “I want what I want” or “I will do it my way.” Trusting God and listening for His leading requires yielding to Him. Knowing and trusting His promises is vital. Otherwise, I’d stay in bed in the morning. I cannot live and prosper without Him. 

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. (Psalm 37:5)

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5–6)

Piper writes about keeping our part of the covenant we have with God, yet I know this cannot be done in my own strength. Piper does too. He says:

God is exalted in our honesty when we look to him and not to our schemes. And when God is exalted in our lives, we discover what we were created to be. No pursuit of self-enhancement without this exaltation of God will succeed. But if we humble ourselves with confidence in God’s future grace, and by this faith submit to his command for promise-keeping integrity, then he will exalt us in due time: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

 PRAY: Jesus, You are most honored when I admit I cannot, and that I need You for all things. Long lists or short, hard days or easy ones, without Your promises, no matter how hard I try, I cannot improve myself. I need You. May You be glorified today and every day. 

Maturity is not about age…

 
The few people I know that are afflicted with bi-polar problems struggle to explain what life is like for them. This is a difficult condition to understand. For me, the spiritual version is easier to understand. As a Christian, I have a new nature from Christ. My old nature is said to be “dead” meaning it is separated from God (and always has been) and cannot live like a godly person.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4)

However, that old nature is a stubborn tenant and tries to remain in charge even though new life from Christ means that I have another way to think and live. My new preferences and purposes are like Christ’s desires. If this were not so, I could not call myself a Christian. I am defined by the divine nature of Jesus.

The goal of God is that I cease from my own efforts entirely and by faith put on Christ, letting Him live in me and work in me to both desire and do His will. The idea is to abandon myself entirely to Him. He is my life, my destiny and I am to be entirely committed to let Him rule my thoughts, words, everything. The NT describes it like putting off an old garment and putting on this new life.  

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:9–10)

The problems come with shedding those old habits. Pride and practice make many of them seem ‘good enough’ or the old habits so easily happen without thinking. For instance, I grew up on a farm where every meal had a dessert. We worked hard and ate well. Now that the physical labor is not so vigorous, I don’t need that much sugar, but the habit has me craving a dessert after a meal. Mentally I know better but the habit is hard to put off.

It is the same with many behaviors. The new life in Christ wants me to think like Jesus but the old life fights it, along with the help of the world (all those TV commercials about food and recipes for yummy looking cakes and cookies, for instance) and the liar who tries to convince me that ‘everyone does it’ or that ‘just once won’t hurt’ or some other excuse to abandon old habits. But the Bible says:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)

This is precisely why I need a Savior. The battle is hopelessly lost without the divine power in the new life of Christ. I need to trust Him for whatever is needed to put off those old ways and live for Him and be like Him.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

PRAY: Jesus, we who are getting older complain how much longer it takes to do normal chores and how much more difficult they get as our bodies become less cooperative. I recall the young man who said to me, “Getting older must make it easier to be a Christian.” I laughed, but there are days when this is not funny. The weakness of aging is one thing that discourages putting off the old and putting on the new. I am thankful that your “strength is perfected in weakness” — otherwise I fear this would be a losing battle.

Life in Christ — New and Renewed

 

Several thoughts come to mind with the word RENEW. It means “to reestablish on a new, usually improved, basis or make new or like new” yet for many people that looks like a matter of opinion.

 I’ve been purging the extras and unused from my studio. Seeing only what I need creates a sense of newness. Some think their lives will be made new by a change of employment, a reno on their home, or a new spouse, or even a new politician in power. Samuel thought that when they asked for a king and before his inauguration said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.”

God is in the business of renewal. In the OT, this word is mostly about restoration after seeming deadness or a human failure. For instance, Psalm 104:30 refers to the life cycle of animals and says, “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”

When God’s people are worn out or discouraged, we often speak to God concerning His ability to restore our energy and hope using these thoughts:

Psalm 103:2–5. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Isaiah 40:30–31. “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

As for failure, David prayed to God in repentance after his sin with Bathsheba, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” When the entire people of God seemed abandoned, Jeremiah also prayed that God would restore His relationship with them:

Lamentations 5:21–22. “Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old— unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.”

In the NT, renewal is about the on-going and lifelong process of becoming more like Jesus. It begins with saving faith and salvation . . .

Titus 3:4–7. “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

We who believe are made new by a ‘second birth’ and then being made new day by day by the power of the Holy Spirit. Even aging does not change the process. 2 Corinthians 4:16 is an encouragement to those who feel ‘old and useless’ at times. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” That inner renewal changes the way I feel about growing older!

The process is simple: I’m to turn away from sin, selfishness, and the rule of my old nature and allow the Spirit of God to keep changing me.

Ephesians 4:20–24. “But that is not the way you learned Christ! — assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9–10. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. We often say that God’s unconditional love accepts us the way we are. Nothing we do affects His love or increases it. However, even though God loves me as I am, He also loves me too much to leave me that way. His goal is to transform me into the image of His Son. He does it by renewal through the power of the Holy Spirit. Making that goal my goal also makes life an incredible adventure. Instead of trying to work things for my benefit, He presents daily opportunities where I can be renewed, reestablished as a new, improved self, given as an amazing gift in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord!