Sometimes I think that I am an emotional wreck. I seem to have it together in some areas but failing in others. I have this friend in my life who constantly keeps me in check. His emotional check ups are hard to take. I guess because I know that he can see me. I feel like running from him or never again conversing with him. The real truth of the matter is that it is not easy to be seen. I hate standing naked in front of people. You know what I’m talking about, naked, as in a person can see pass the façade, charade and parade that you have created to appear to have it all “together”. We find so much of this among saved people. Yep, Christian folks are the biggest perpetrators of life.
We have a certain
image to uphold and we will do so at all costs. The image that we strive to
uphold is not the image of God. The image of the Father is pure, real, and true.
So then, what is this image that believers have taken upon themselves to uphold
and aspire to? Could it be that this image is one created by people who feel the
need to appear to be something that they are not? Could this image have been
designed by individuals who set impossible standards and then once realizing
that those standards could be neither attained nor maintained then were forced
into a life of delusional perfection?
We are taught to play games. Not directly but there is a subtle teaching in the
church that we are to not allow others to see our flaws, challenges, or
shortcomings. As a result, not only do church folk judge one another but now
also the non-church folks. Isn’t it funny how unsaved people are quick to
disclose to a believer what the believer can or cannot do, should or should not
say? The world has taken upon themselves to hold a believer accountable to his
own standards of righteousness. The unsaved have begun leading the saved!! Now,
we have a problem. If the unsaved can dictate righteous standards to the saved
person, are the standards really righteous? My question to you
today is by whose standards are you aligning your walk with Christ?
There is a lot of liberty lying among the truth of the word of God. Somewhere in the midst of discovering those liberties, the church became unclear in it’s defining of righteousness. It is only by the Spirit of God that our actions are judged to be right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous. Walk in the truth of the Holy Spirit for He is the Spirit of Truth disclosing our very nature of salvation, opening us to accept the will of the Lord for our lives, and teaching us to walk in His image only. When we learn to walk after the Spirit of God rather than the expectations of men are we then able to stand naked before one another. Then can we shed the many faces that make up our artificial personalities and create our fictitious emotions. Then and only then can we come clean with one another and accept the life changing power of God into our situations and circumstances without compromising His image.
Mia Montgomery