Your daily goal:

Con’t… The Search for Significance, by R. McGee

In the beginning, God declared that man was created to reign with Him;  however, man rejected God’s truth and chose instead to believe Satan’s lie.  Today, man continues to reject God’s truth and offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.  He chooses instead to trust in his success and the opinions of others to give him a sense of self-worth, though the Scriptures clearly teach that apart from Christ, man is enslaved to sin and condemned to an eternity in hell.

Since the Fall, man has often failed to turn to God for the truth about himself.  Instead, he has looked to others to meet his inescapable need for self-worth.  I am what others say I am, he has reasoned.  I will find my value in their opinions of me. 

Isn’t it amazing that we turn to others who have a perspective as limited and darkened as our own to discover our worth!  Rather than relying on God’s steady, uplifting reassurance of who we are, we depend on others who base our worth on our ability to meet their standards.  Because our performance and ability to please others so dominate our search for significance, we have difficulty recognizing the distinction between our real identity and the way we behave, a realization crucial to understanding our true worth.  Our true value is based not on our behavior or the approval of others but on what God’s Word says is true of us.

Our behavior is often a reflection of our beliefs about who we are.  It is usually consistent with what we think to be true about ourselves (Proverbs 23:7).  If we base our worth solidly on God’s Word, then our behavior will often reflect His love, grace, and power.  But if we base our worth on our abilities or the fickle approval of others, then our behavior will reflect the insecurity, fear, and anger that come from such instability:

Though we usually behave in ways that are consistent with our beliefs, at times our actions may contradict them.  For example, we may believe that we are generous and gracious when we are actually very selfish.  Sometimes our behavior changes what we believe about ourselves.  If, for instance, we succeed in a task at which we initially believed we would fail, our confidence may begin to grow and expand to other areas of our lives.  Our feelings, behavior, and beliefs all interact to shape our lives.

Separated from God and His Word, people have only their abilities and the opinions of others on which to base their worth, and the circumstances around them ultimately control the way they feel about themselves.  (con’t tomorrow)