Mountaintop Musings: The Problem of "Self"

This subject may take several “Musings” to cover it, so if this interests you, you may want to keep this one so you can read them together. It seems to me that just about everyone of us is dealing with serious problems. Personal problems that fester, and grow in to physical, mental and spiritual cancers that poisons our minds and relationships. Life is about managing problems. The key is how we solve those problems, how do we come to resolution and understanding.

First the problems we all have come from the results of our sin, a violation of God’s word. Since God created us in His image (Genesis 1:26), and we have all sinned (Romans 3:10, 23) we live with an image of God within us that has been tainted by sin. That affects our entire being. I don’t think many would argue that man’s natural bent is to sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20, 29; Romans 3: 10-18). Of course, I know some do not agree with this statement. But our lives, history, and current events prove man is inherently evil.

Each of us can discern between good and evil (Genesis 3:22) and each of us is fashioned in the likeness of God (James 3:9). But because we are marred by sin in our fallen nature, we block out the image of God that he would have shine through our lives. You were fearfully and wonderfully made in your Mother’s womb by God (Psalm 139: 13-15; Isaiah 44:24), but only God can enable us to re-acquire the perfect image of Himself in our innermost being.

How does He do that? It is by receiving Jesus Christ as your savior that God can restore and redeem us. Jesus as the self-existent Son of God, our Creator, is the only one that can restore us. Jesus is not a created being; He is God the Son. Jesus was not born into existence, He is the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace that Isaiah 9:6 and John 1 describes. Jesus is who the Bible says he is. He is not who I “think” He is; He is not who you “think” he is; He is not who your neighbor says he is; He is who He says He is. So, if you have not read and studied the Holy Bible in a systematic way your understanding of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will be faulty. If your view of God is incorrect, then the view you have of yourself and others will be incorrect. The result is PROBLEMS!

So, having the right view of God is the most important thing! The second is having the right view of self. If I did not know better, I would swear that the world revolves around several people that I have dealt with in the past week or two. It is “all about them and their opinion and needs and desires”. If you don’t bow down to their view, then you get yelled at, cussed at, verbally abused, character slandered, etc. They are so important they have no time or desire to look at their lives and ask what they need to do differently. Some are blinded by their ego. Others by drugs and demonic influence. Others are so hurting and broken they cannot see or think clearly.

But the good news for us all is that God has graciously provided all we need for Victory in Jesus Christ. He wants us to give Him the glory, not ourselves (Psalm 115:1, Romans 1: 19-21; 5:1-2, 6-11). Jesus is our example for this, how to deny yourself, disregard your needs and glory, and live for God. Jesus lived to do the will of his Father (John 4:34), He was a servant (Mark 10:45) and through it all remained obedient unto death (Philippians 2: 5-8).

In closing to get a handle on all our problems a good starting point is to look at Jesus. We must deny ourselves (Luke 9: 23-24); we must serve others like Jesus did (Mathew 20: 26-28), please God by living for Him (Colossians 1:10) and give God the glory for all we do (John 17: 4-5).

Thanks for reading this column and feel free to call me any time.

(Dave & Lisa Carroll are area missionaries with InFaith, America’s oldest Christian home mission agency. Source material for this article is from the Biblical Counseling Foundation. You can contact Dave at 406.459.8935 or [email protected])