It’s a worldly self-centered perspective
For those in Christ, it calls God a liar.
Psalm 139:14 (ESV)
14
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
It accomplishes nothing.
James 1:23-24 (ESV)
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
Why is it important that we have a proper perspective of ourselves?
Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
We Have to have a Vertical reflection.
Our reflection has to be vertical not horizontal.
We have to live in light of who God says we are, not who we say we are, our parents say we are, our friends, or our enemies…but who God says we are.
Judges 6:11-16 (ESV)
The Call of Gideon
11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”
Know who you are, declare who you are, believe who you are, and live out who you are called to be.
Luke 2:48-52 (ESV)
48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Jesus was 12 years old, his parents hadn’t had “The Talk” with him. They never had to tell him that Joseph wasn’t his daddy. He knew he was the Son of God… And just like Jesus we have to know that we are sons and daughters of the Most High God!!
James 1:25 (ESV)
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.