Your daily goal:
Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
(Monday-Friday, from my daily study time, I will write a short thought for that day which I pray God will use to motivate you to ‘GO’ for that day. Your objective is simple…to GO…to GO OUT and share the love of Christ with someone in that day….to GO and bear fruit …to be light to the world.)
Today’s Daily Light
Taking from…The Search For Significance, by R. McGee
Continuing with ‘Shame’. (I Am What I Am. I Cannot Change. I Am Hopeless.)
Our past relationships may involve the intense pain of neglect, abuse, and manipulation, but if we do not begin the process of healing, we will be unable to experience the joy, challenge, and, yes, the potential for failure in the present.
The truth that I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, and totally accepted by the God of the universe has taken me a lifetime to comprehend. But gradually, by studying God’s Word and by experiencing loving relationships with other believers who genuinely care for me and appreciate me, I have continued to gain a better understanding of the way God values me. This has improved my sense of self-worth considerably.
Many of my past memories are still painful form me, and I imagine they always will be. But through Christ, my present attitude about myself is continually changing. Knowing that I have no reason to feel ashamed has motivated me to pursue a number of challenges that I wouldn’t have even considered pursuing a number of years ago. In the process, I have experienced failure and success. God has used each instance to teach me that despite my circumstances, my worth is secure in Him. We need to be honest about the pain, the anger, the disappointment, and the loneliness of our past. We need to put ourselves in relationships that will encourage us to feel what we may have suppressed for many years. This will enable us to begin (or continue) to experience hope and, eventually, healing. Change is possible, but it is a process.
Does this seem strange? Does it seem difficult? We may have difficulty relinquishing what is familiar (though painful) for what is unfamiliar because our fear of the unknown often seems stronger than the pain of a poor self-concept. It seems right to hang on.
Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
Any change in our behavior requires a release from our old self-concept, which is often founded in failure and the expectations of others. We need to learn how to relate to ourselves in a new way. To accomplish this, we must begin to base our self-worth on God’s opinion of us and trust in His Spirit to accomplish change in our lives. Then, and only then, can we overcome Satan’s deception that holds say over our self-perception and behavior.
By believing Satan’s lie I am what I am; I cannot change; I am hopeless, we become vulnerable to pessimism and a poor self-concept.
Dear Father..we need help. I pray that you will give us the desire, energy, and literal physical/emotional/spiritual ability to ‘discipline’ ourselves to spend time with you in prayer, and reading and meditation on/of Your word. This is the only way we can ‘change’…This is the only way to do a true spiritual ‘make-over’. I pray that you will give each of us a hunger to spend time in Your ‘light’ …’so that’ ….we can transform into the image of Your Son, Jesus, to become increasingly more like Him…’so that’ we live our lives pleasing to You and bare eternal fruit. Amen
Let There Be Light 