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When we fully understand our value in Christ, issues such as anxiety, depression, fear, shame, regret, and anger significantly fade or disappear altogether. The result is a better life. These “enemies” with which we often daily “war” usually stem from our seeking value in something or things other than Christ. It leaves us feeling empty.
And it’s unfair to seek our value through another person, because as humans we are not created to fulfill another person’s complete needs. Additionally, if we look to manmade items, such as money, cars, homes, etc., those things have no life. Deadness cannot provide life. Those are simply items of adornment.
Individuals that fall completely apart when someone breaks-up with them, divorces them, even dies have often used that other person as their source of self-value. Thus, when the person disappears, the one left behind feels empty and useless. It’s the same with status, title, money, and status symbols. We often use those things to fill us, and to keep ourselves filled we buy more, work harder. Not that those things are bad. They can be great if they are not our gods. That’s idol worship. Things with no life cannot provide life.
Though I grew up with much confidence, my household was internally chaotic. Financially well off and having good appearance, my family suffered severe internal struggles with self-value and often sought that value from those things written above. And because I suffered a long, punitive divorce, I allowed myself to be duped into thinking it was all my fault. The result was severe shame and regret. This was because perfect performance was our god. If we screwed up, it tarnished our sense of self-value.
It was a rigid existence.
This led to anxiety and depression. My family history and long, drawn-out divorce were so messy, messed up, and complicated, I didn’t feel like anyone could help me. Therapists could do only so much. And I had even trained in cognitive behavioral psychology. It has its limits. No matter how good any psychological technique is, if self-value is at an all-time low success is critically diminished.
Wholeness comes from wholeness within. We are designed to love and be loved; unconditional love is our deepest, foundational emotional need. When we do not receive it, we look to other things for it. And parents cannot often give it because they have their own issues due to not receiving healthy, unconditional love.
My success at getting to a healthier place emotionally was knowing Jesus is not a liar. I knew I could believe everything he says. No one came and did for me what he did in the history of religious icons. So, I learned some important truths and began to meditate on them every day throughout the day, especially when thoughts antithesis to his love crept into my head.
First, Christ loves me unconditionally. I don’t have to be perfect, don’t have to perform, don’t have to earn his love. Through my faith in him, I receive his grace, mercy, and compassion every single day, every single minute of the day, no matter how badly I screw up. He never withdraws his love. Choosing to meditate on this knowledge is a tectonic shift to setting a strong foundation of wholeness, goodness, and beauty in my life.
Second, when I actively seek Him each day, “I am a crown of splendor in the LORD’S hand, a royal diadem in the hand of my God,” Isaiah 62:3“…He rejoices over me as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,” Isaiah 62:5. How beautiful is that knowledge? That’s not a maybe or could be or possibly. His love is real every single minute of the day. And when I walk in Christ, I walk in Holy Spirit power that performs a 24/7 phenomenal work in every area of my life that I don’t even realize or understand.
Stop and think about the kind of love that is the love of a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride. That is a pinnacle of love at one of the most beautiful, intimate points in a blossoming relationship. And therein lies the third important choice. Our relationship with Christ, like any relationship requires daily investment. I can’t come to him once a week or once a month and expect to have victory in my life, expect to overcome challenges.
I love how Joyce Meyer put it, “God is no divine butler waiting to bring us what we want when we want it at our convenience.” Strong relationships require time and input. The results deliver a greater knowledge, wisdom, and discernment of our Heavenly Father. That is the greatest knowledge we could ever hope to acquire in our lives, and it is so readily and powerfully available to us.
Trust me, when you consciously make these three choices daily and fortify them by studying His word, praying, and meditating on what you’ve read, you will begin to see beautiful results. You will begin to see your world with new eyes, see people with new eyes, see superficial garbage with new eyes, and appreciate authenticity with new eyes. And then the miracle of knowing His love becomes concrete, real, and true.
I recently lost my father. He was a good provider and a good man, but he could be distant, unkind, sometimes downright cruel. He was never physically abusive, but his unfeeling remarks would cut me to the core.
A few years ago, I was visiting home, and once again I felt the sting of his unkindness. But because I’d been pursuing Christ daily, it was the first time I truly felt that my Heavenly Father’s love for me far outweighed and surpassed my earthly father’s love. Such that, I was able to go to my Heavenly Father for comfort, knowing that my earthly father had a brokenness within that lashed out. That it wasn’t me that was the issue but a void in my earthly father that was never filled because he didn’t seek the Lord daily; he sought other things to fill the void that didn’t lend to the health of our family.
The key is daily commitment, just as with anything else. But the beautiful aspect about pursuing Christ with passion is that he will transform every single area of our lives for the better. We will see with greater clarity, discern situations with greater wisdom and knowledge, and become much more effective decisions makers. This is because each day we grow stronger in our knowledge of our beautiful value in him, which far surpasses what any mere human here on earth thinks of us.
If you want to get right, get right with Christ. That just takes accepting him as your Lord and Savior, confessing your sins, asking for forgiveness, and asking him to begin directing your life. As a result, you begin getting his daily attention, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and you begin walking in love, faith, and power. Oh, and don’t be surprised if things get a little worse because the forces in this world do not want you walking in the power of Christ. In fact, when you’re not walking in Christ, you are no threat to the god of this world, Satan. But hang tight, Christ overcame the world and all authorities and powers that dwell within it.
Have a beautiful Holy Day ~
Noel