The Nobody Syndrome (Part 4)

The Nobody Syndrome (Part 4) 

Psalms 139:13-16 “ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

It was God who formed you together in your mother's womb. David writes in Verse 13, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." The adverbs in this sentence make it plain that after God made you, He threw away the mold. You are totally unique, a one-of-a-kind, fashioned individual with awe-inspiring skill by God right down to the thumbprint. My dad used to say, "God don't make no junk" and I agree with him.

I used this illustration in a sermon years ago about the super-computer at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Components for this super-computer began arriving in the fall of 2006. Thirty-six moving vans full of equipment were needed to complete it. The computer fills a room the size of a hockey rink and consumes as much power as a small town. And the goal is for this computer to do one quadrillion calculations a second. How fast is that? It is roughly a billion times faster than your desktop computer at home. 

Yet, the human brain processes information even faster than this as a yet incomplete computer! Scientists estimate that the brain carries out 10 quadrillion operations a second or 10 times faster than a computer the size of a hockey rink! God created something wonderful when He made you. If you don't like what you see in the mirror, you have been taking your cues from this carnal world rather than your Heavenly Father. There is no one in history made like you.

If the devil tries to inflict you with the “Nobody” Syndrome, think about these facts:

-God gave you a personality, innate abilities, spiritual gifts, and a particular purpose that sets you apart for Him.

-You are His treasured creation and made in His likeness.

-God knows you, wants you and He made you special. Your gifts and talents are His to command. Man may not see your achievements, but God will. Remember, wherever you are you and your work are special to Him. He is with those who are faithful and will see you through every obstacle of life. You are unique and He loves you.

The Nobody Syndrome (Part 3)

The Nobody Syndrome (Part 3) 

Psalm 139:7-12 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”

If you feel like a “nobody” you don’t want to be exposed. You would rather remain in anonymity than risk failure because you're worried what you think your peers have thought of you really will come true. Too many of our brethren live with that fear because of the disconnect they feel because of the size of their congregation and the lack of growth they’ve experienced.

David's fear of total exposure moved him to ponder if there was some retreat, geographically or spiritually, to which he could hide himself away; but God would not let him run away. David shares the though that God is "determined to give me grace, and to be involved in my life."

That's what David is saying in Verse 10 when he says, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” 

You know what this means, don't you? 

-You are wanted by God. 

-You are not a “nobody” in God’s sight. 

-You see this confirmed over and over in the Bible, 

-You are called God's beloved, chosen, dearly loved child. 

-You are told that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 

When you feel the crushing weight of loneliness and wonder if you would be missed if you were gone, remember this. What you are doing where you are for the Kingdom is just as important as the pastor of the largest church. Man may not give recognition, but God does and will honor your faithfulness to His cause. Sometimes you feel unappreciated, but God is keeping a record of your faithfulness. That's all that really matters in the end!

He loves you and He pledges to you that you belong to Him because of your faith in Christ Jesus. God knows you and wants you. His pursuit of you is because you’re not a “nobody”, but a “somebody” to Him.

The Nobody Syndrome (Part 2)

The Nobody Syndrome (Part 2)

Psalm 139:1-6 “O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”

There are eight different Hebrew words in the opening six verses of Psalm 139 that line up to tell you that God knows your story intimately.

Each of these words convey a different layer of God's knowledge of you. Combined, they picture God like a detective, tracking even your most ordinary activities, studying you even when you think you're all alone. He dissects your inner world into parts, discerning what makes you tick and why you do what you do. He has such a grasp of you on a programming level that He knows precisely what you will say or do next, as if it had already been uttered or performed.

So God knows:

-Your heart, fears, thoughts, motives, dreams, and frustrations.

-Your past, present and your future. He understands you more than you understand yourself.

-All that’s going on around you, with you, and inside you.

God just gets you. He has you anointed you more than you even imagine. You think your motive for doing ministry is your profession, when God knows you're obeying His calling in your life without regard of personal sacrifice. He knows exactly where you are, even if your peers and officials don’t recognize the hard work you do for the Kingdom. 

When David says that God has laid His hand upon him, he's referring to the Old Testament practice of bestowing a blessing on someone. A wise father would place his hands on his children and speak words into their lives about their present, what their place in the family meant, and what their future will be. This was one of the most important acts that happened in Hebrew families.

In the same way, your Heavenly Father who knows you intimately bestows blessing on you, borne out of love, that marks your place in His family and what your future is all about. In His family, nobodies are non-existent. So should it be within a church denomination or organization. Every contribution, even as small as a widow's mite, is important to our Father God.

Flawed (Part 5)

Flawed (Part 5)

Hebrews 13:5 "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

You have to fully accept who you are today before you can reach forward and be an overcomer in your future. If you try to make changes in reaching tomorrow's goals without accepting who your are today you feel completely unsatisfied with where you're going, You have to accept, acknowledge, and appreciate where you are today. Your flaws can prohibit your future from being completed if they control your thoughts today.

As a Christian you must remember God’s work in the past, but you must also be aware of what God is doing today. We look to God’s activity in the past to remind ourselves that God’s promises are for us now and for our future. God is still active in the world today, changing lives, healing and saving. The best is not behind us, but the best is yet to come. You just have to see it today and accept it personally.

You cannot be afraid of your future. Jesus reminds you to live each day knowing the love and care of God and to allow the future to worry about itself.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:34: 

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” 

Jesus also promised in Matthew 28:20:

“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” 

The story of God’s people in the Old Testament and the New Testament is one of God’s faithfulness. When God made a promise He kept that promise. However, it is also a story of human faithlessness as the people of God grew weary of faith and tired of hope. Over and over again they gave up on God, but God never gave up on them. God will not give up on you now and never will. God is with you always. It is not what you were that matters to Him, but it's what you are now.

Remember what God has done for you today as well as in the past. The Christian faith is based upon God’s faithfulness in the past which you can take personally. We look back to the Old Testament and Isaiah’s prophecy came to pass, which was the people marched back through the desert home to Jerusalem. After almost two thousand years in exile from AD 70 to 1948, the Jewish people found a home again in the land of Israel. What God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 1900 years before Jesus is still God’s promise over 2000 years after. For us as Christians we look to Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the whole world. In Jesus, God Himself paid the penalty for our sins. In Jesus, God came into the world to be one of us; nothing human is foreign to this God. In Jesus, God is with us now and will be forever. God will never leaves us or forsake us.

Isaiah 43:1, 2 says:

“But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

The verb tense used here is the present tense. God was not only with people in the past, but God is with you today. God did not only save long ago, but God is saving you right now.

It is too easy for most of us over fifty years old, to look back to the days when churches were growing and expanding. You could announce a goal for 300 attendance on a special day and three hundred people or more would show up. Yet, that past is not coming back. So you the Church must be daring and innovative, living in the present and preparing for what is to come, by looking past your flaws to the God of today.

God’s love and salvation is not just for yesterday but today and tomorrow and all the tomorrows to come. Jesus is with us even to the end of the age. Embrace and make peace with where you are today, and your journey toward something new will feel much more peaceful, rewarding, and satisfying.

Flawed (Part 7)

Flawed (Part 7)

Jude 1:21 "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

Three things to remember:

-Telling yourself what a failure you are won't make you any more successful. 

-Telling yourself you're not living up to your full potential won't help you reach a higher potential. 

-Telling yourself you're worthless and unlovable won't make you feel any more worthy or lovable.

Loving yourself is based on receiving the unending love that God has for us. You cannot love God until you have first received from Him and allowed His love to permeate the way you see yourself. The love God empowers you to see yourself through that love. Therefore, you can know you have plugged into God's love when you are able to love yourself properly.

Loving yourself allows you to see yourself the way God sees you in thoughts, words and actions. You are able to relate to yourself from a motivation of love. You get a sense of how God sees you; therefore, you live your life based on that perception and not the perception of others. 

Loving yourself involves unconditional acceptance. There is no way to move forward from your without first accepting yourself in love, right where you are, with no strings attached. God is not performance based, but bases His presence in your life with love.

Loving yourself establishes your worth and value in a dynamic way. It sets the tone for the way you establish your worth in life. When you love yourself properly, you gain a healthy sense of value based on the simplicity of being loved.

Loving yourself is built on kindness and patience. 1 Corinthians 13 tells you that patience and kindness are the main pillars of love. They make way for the rest of love's power to manifest. Kindness is what love gives out. Patience is what love can handle.

Loving yourself is not based on your circumstances. In fact, the more challenging circumstances become, the more you need to love yourself. Otherwise anger, contempt, self-accusation and self-hate will scream in your thoughts all day long. Your flaws will be magnified. Love silences the power of those voices and gives you authority over them in Jesus' name.

Loving yourself cultivates an acceptance of your flaws. Self-love puts all your struggles and weaknesses into the right perspective. It even puts sin in the right perspective. Love doesn't ignore sin. It covers it and creates an atmosphere whereby sin can be healed and powerfully eradicated. There is no need to obsess over areas of weakness many people try to hide every day. Instead, you can affirm who you are and be authentic. Love frees you to be yourself without shame, eliminating the fear of exposure and condemnation. God's love allows you to live accepted, safe and at peace in your own skin.

Loving yourself has a lot to do with self-compassion. When you learn to love yourself, you give to yourself what you would often extend to someone you love dearly. Loving yourself satisfies the deep longing of your heart while establishing a powerful reservoir of compassion to pour out to others.

Loving yourself allows you to look in the mirror and like what you see. This is by far the most challenging for so many. For most of my life, looking at a picture of myself or catching a glance in the mirror were frustrating experiences. I always tried to be what I thought everybody wanted me to be at the expense of just being myself. No one taught me that seeing myself with kind eyes was incredibly important to my health and sanity.

When you don't love yourself, you become trained to see yourself with an altered perception that is negative. Your flaws become so magnified, you see things even those around you do not notice. When you do not love yourself, you become trained to see yourself with an altered perception that is negative. You are enough just as you are and self-love will be a little bit easier every time you remind yourself of that. God loves you just like you are!

Flawed (Part 6)

Flawed (Part 6)

James 1:2, 3 "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."

Try harder. Achieve more. Make no mistakes. Produce perfection. These are the messages the world screams at us in the 21st century. It’s not just a secular message either. The attempt to be perfect has always affected our churches. Worship bands spend hours tweaking musical concepts that will most likely go unnoticed by most. Creative teams spend weeks on video promos, handouts and lighting to compliment a service. Pastors labor for hours over the perfect words for their congregations to tweet. There is nothing wrong with working hard to achieve good results and give our best to what we do. God loves when we use the gifts He has given us for His glory, whether that’s by preaching, teaching, learning or building a business.

One of the biggest causes of self-loathing is the need to “get it right.” We strive for perfection and success, and when we fall short, we feel less than and worthless. What we don't seem to realize is that working toward our goals and being willing to put ourselves out there are accomplishments within themselves, regardless of how many times we fail.

In the Old Testament, the word "avodah" is often used to mean both work and worship. Working hard is no bad thing, and many good things have come out of situations where people have worked furiously hard to achieve brilliant results.But things have escalated. Society today places expectations upon us that are not only unhealthy, but ungodly. Mistakes are no longer lessons to learn from, but public humiliations, which serve only to knock our confidence and thwart our passions. Achieving anything less than perfection is considered a failure. Employees in some of our biggest firms work well into the early hours only to get up at the crack of dawn, all in an attempt to avoid failure. It’s perfection or nothing.

The problem is that by striving to be perfect, we are relying on our own strength and not God’s. That is why people who spend their lives trying desperately to achieve perfection often burn out. The human desire to be perfect means we push God to the side, opting to tap into our own limited power resources rather than drawing from the well of life. In many ways, the shift in society to achieve perfection is a shift that says, “God, we don’t need you anymore, we’ve got this one covered.”

God never calls us to be perfect, but He does call us to be holy. In his first letter, Peter echoes the book of Leviticus when he writes, “Be holy, because I am holy” in 1 Peter 1:16. Holiness is messy. Holiness calls us into situations where what matters is our obedience, not our success rate. God doesn’t judge us with a performance chart or a strategic review. He looks at our hearts, looks for our obedience and takes delight in that. Recognizing this frees us to find our worth and acceptance in God alone. We seek not to please those around us, only God.

We seek to please Him by offering Him a willing and contrite heart, ready to learn from our mistakes and delve into the messiness that is the realm of holiness. As a consequence of this, there is every chance we will see our work results improve, as the pressure is lifted and we begin to do what we do for the glory of God.

True perfection is only and will always be found in God. While we are called to be like Jesus, we must acknowledge that we can never be perfect as He was perfect. Attempting to be perfect is a vain human striving to play God, to bring things under our control, to maintain a vestige of power that we should otherwise surrender.

Instead of berating yourself for messing up and stumbling backward, give yourself a pat on the back for trying, making progress, and coming as far as you have. Focus on progress rather than perfection and on how far you've come rather than how far you have left to go. Your flaws can be overcome. 

Flawed (Part 4)

Flawed (Part 4)

Romans 5: 8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You need love the most when you feel you deserve it the least. It is most difficult to accept love and understanding from others when you're in a state of anger, shame, anxiety, or depression. Your flaws will put you in mind of your past spiritual condition and failures. Yet, understanding the truth of God's love for you shifts your perspective and makes you realize that His love is actually the greatest gift you will ever receive during your lifetime.  

Jesus’ work on the cross was a clear, unmistakable declaration of love for you with your flaws. This love is unconditional because when you were in your worst state Christ died for you: 

Ephesian 2:1-5 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)"

Your salvation has made eternal life possible. He loved you in spite of your flaws. Hear the words of Jesus:

John 10:10 “The thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy, Jesus said. “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” 

God is not stingy and wants to lavish His love on us. Remember, Paul was formerly an enemy of Christ. He constantly persecuted Christians seeking their destruction. He lived by the letter of the law rather than through an understanding of God’s love. If he even thought of God’s love, he probably felt that God could not love him apart from rule-following. Yet, in Jesus, he found God’s grace and accepted God’s love. One of his greatest interpretations of God’s love is this: 

Romans 8:31, 32 “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

Verses 35-39 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So the simple answer is, “yes.” Yes, God loves you! As hard as it may be to believe even with your flaws, it is the truth.