After briefly talking with a friend the other day, the conversation continued to turn over in my mind, as I considered the various ways it could be explored. He admitted that he hesitates to share his faith because he’s not qualified. I can definitely connect with that same struggle.
He and I are from the same generation with parents who taught us that no matter how good we were, one bad decision/action would doom us to hell. I’m not hating on our parents, that’s how they too were raised. Besides, since how one is raised is what one emulates, I pray my children will forgive me for any misleading information about God that I’ve handed down. Just like me, they’ll need to examine what they were taught, holding the information up to who God is and what He has to say on the matter.
Feeling unqualified to share who God is in my life speaks to the condition of my heart toward God. I create self-imposed definitions on why I am and am not qualified, but if I’m genuinely letting God work in my life, the struggle is part of the journey—an expedition of discovering who He says I am and what that means regarding His identity.
The best testimonies are the real ones where others can relate to the transformation of who we used to be into who we were created to be. Whenever we prequalify ourselves based on our inabilities, we reveal our maturity level with regard to who we understand God to be. But that’s not a bad thing. We’ll never fully understand who God is until we see Him face to face. Besides, it’s the beauty of discovering Him that makes life worth living.
I’ll admit that the elephant in the room is often the fact that people sometimes call Christians hypocrites. I get it. I can be a hypocritical Christian. When I act self-righteous about sin, I deserve to be called a hypocrite. Where is the place to land if we’re not to agree with sin and yet we sin? The short answer is love. It’s a simple answer, but there is much depth in simplicity with God.
As a young mom I learned not to trap my boys in a lie. If I knew they had broken a family boundary/rule, I didn’t bother to ask them if they were guilty. I wasn’t trying to avoid their taking responsibility for their choices, because I knew the consequences would speak for themselves.
Asking them if they had broken the rules kicked them into a survival mode, and they would lie. To me, I was being self-righteous in my position of authority in my home. Creating a “gotcha” scenario seemed like narrow-minded morality, and it didn’t serve my overall goal of loving them well.
Instead, I called out the offense, asked them the reasoning for their choices, and handed down the adequate correction based on age and severity. This served me well in that I could correct the behavior in love. After all, is it God’s grace and loving kindness that draws us into repentance?
If we don’t feel we have a testimony about God’s goodness in our life, I think it’s fair to ask ourselves if it is because we’ve stalled out in the transformation process. Is it that we don’t have a recent victory or revelation to share, or is it that we’ve turned our self-righteousness inward and, in doing so, silenced our growth?
Satan uses many tactics to separate us from knowing the all-surpassing power and love of God. For me, his most effective strategy is condemnation. The internal dialog of shame has to be, hands down, the best tool of destruction. May we get super good at using the first thought of shame as a trigger to know immediately that Satan is present and at work.
Condemnation brings destruction to its fullest, but love brings life everlasting.
God does not create “gotcha” scenarios lauding His position of authority over us. He has no desire to see us in survival mode and takes no pleasure when we make choices that leave us filled with guilt and shame, driving us further from Him. He draws us to Him with His loving kindness, speaking respectfully, and calling us into who He knows us to be.
He’s the undaunted Father who picks us up, checks us over, and addresses our pain. He gets us back on the bike saying, “Come on, sweet one, let’s do this again. I’m ready if you are. I’m right here beside you, I’m not going anywhere else. You’re going to be great this time, I know it!”
God’s goal is not only to love us well but for us to awaken to the fact that He’s writing a love story about us and He wants us to participate in the writing. He gently intertwines who we used to be, moving us into who we were created to be, and never wastes a single thing in the process.
NOW LIVE LOVED and THRIVE!
Want more encouragement? Listen to real stories from real people who can testify to God’s goodness in this life: https://alifeofthrive.com/finding-god-in-our-pain-podcast/
Self-Reflection
These questions are in no way a substitute for healthcare professionals or any level of professional counseling. I’m an advocate for taking care of oneself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. These questions reflect my heart, NOT my profession.
This questionnaire is an opportunity to journal your thoughts and feelings. It can serve as a launching pad on which to evaluate your heart condition as you understand it. My hope is that you will take the truths you discover about yourself and hold them up to the Light to evaluate them against who God says you are.
- How would you describe your heart condition toward God in this phase of your life?
- Have you ever been a hypocritical Christian? If so, in what way?
- Thinking about a time that you felt judged or were being judgmental, what do you think it revealed about how you relate to God?
- What are some elements of a beautiful love story?
- If you joined God in His love story over your life, what is one thing you’d love for Him to show you or let you experience about His love for you?
Talk to God about your answers. Give Him praise, ask Him questions and then listen for His gentle response.
Take Action
Use God’s word to take control over the traumas in your life. Whenever you feel terrorized by your thoughts take them captive by replacing them with the truth of God’s promises in His word.
Here is a scripture for you to print, cut and carry with you and/or post in places where you will see it often. Ground yourself in God’s truths not Satan’s attacks. Encourage your heart and mind every time you are reminded of His great love for YOU!
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life (through Jesus Christ). God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.” John 3:16-18 (MSG)
Translation:
God did not send His Son to accuse me of anything but to save me from what I’m destined for without Him. Jesus wants to put my world right and help me navigate the pitfalls of this life. Following the unique person of Jesus Christ releases me from the grip of sin and death and moves me into forgiveness and eternal life (through what Christ did on the cross).
