…that He would grant
you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power
through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may
be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
This week we are focusing on living an authentic Christian life. Some believers try to appear that they are the perfect Christian, refusing to allow weaknesses or vulnerabilities show. The world does not want to see perfect people. In fact, they are scared off by pews of perfect people. They want real, authentic, vulnerable people that they can relate to. Are you being real to the world? When someone looks you in the eye, do they see the real you? Jesus is real. We as His followers know exactly who He is and what He stands for; He shows us how to be real. When we are authentic, He is most at home in our lives.
To be authentic and authentic
Christians, we have to first learn who we really are. By not knowing who we are or by hiding our
true selves, we become what people want us to be. By becoming what others want us to be, we hide
who we truly are even more. We hide
failures and weaknesses knowing that all of the people God used the most in
Bible times had great weaknesses and failures.
Your identity doesn't depend on something you do or have done. Your true
identity is who you are in Christ.
Learn to Love Yourself as God Loves You
We can be so desperate to try to please people and earn their love that we try to change who we are to meet their expectations. This can even happen before we realize it is happening. We tend to believe Satan’s lies about ourselves. We may think we are not special, that we are a failure, no one likes us, we are physically unattractive, or that our sin makes us unworthy of even asking God for help or receiving His love. If we could see ourselves the way God sees us, we would live more confidently; we would believe our potential; we would see our beauty and strengths; we would see our possibilities of accomplishment; and we would live with more confidence, more hope and less fear. God knows the very worst secrets and sins we hide. Yet he loves us with an everlasting love and infinite mercy and grace. The God of the universe, King of Kings and Lord of Lords knows everything about you and still accepts you; He even sent His son to die for you. It is impossible to fake it with Him.
We can be so desperate to try to please people and earn their love that we try to change who we are to meet their expectations. This can even happen before we realize it is happening. We tend to believe Satan’s lies about ourselves. We may think we are not special, that we are a failure, no one likes us, we are physically unattractive, or that our sin makes us unworthy of even asking God for help or receiving His love. If we could see ourselves the way God sees us, we would live more confidently; we would believe our potential; we would see our beauty and strengths; we would see our possibilities of accomplishment; and we would live with more confidence, more hope and less fear. God knows the very worst secrets and sins we hide. Yet he loves us with an everlasting love and infinite mercy and grace. The God of the universe, King of Kings and Lord of Lords knows everything about you and still accepts you; He even sent His son to die for you. It is impossible to fake it with Him.
Learn to Accept God’s Grace and to Have Grace on Yourself
The Bible tells us in Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. We all have failures in our past; wrong decisions and choices we regret. We have to stop focusing on our past weaknesses to accept who we are in Christ. We are forgiven. We are sons and daughters of the King! He does not dwell on our failures and mistakes so we need to stop reminding ourselves. Jesus died for all of us so that we could be forgiven and our sins removed from our record forever. He has made us new creatures because He does not want our past to be a part of who we are. We are new creations in Him. We are hand-crafted by the creator of the universe, and He cares about us and rejoices over us with great joy. He loves us for who we are, not what we have done. That is how He wants us to see ourselves. Discover who you already are in Christ, not who you are based on other people’s expectations. Grasp His love and grace for you and live authentically and boldly in His strength.
The Bible tells us in Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. We all have failures in our past; wrong decisions and choices we regret. We have to stop focusing on our past weaknesses to accept who we are in Christ. We are forgiven. We are sons and daughters of the King! He does not dwell on our failures and mistakes so we need to stop reminding ourselves. Jesus died for all of us so that we could be forgiven and our sins removed from our record forever. He has made us new creatures because He does not want our past to be a part of who we are. We are new creations in Him. We are hand-crafted by the creator of the universe, and He cares about us and rejoices over us with great joy. He loves us for who we are, not what we have done. That is how He wants us to see ourselves. Discover who you already are in Christ, not who you are based on other people’s expectations. Grasp His love and grace for you and live authentically and boldly in His strength.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 ESV
