Discovering Spiritual Healing

Last week we talked about recreating ourselves in our own image. We imagine what it is we want to be, and then we set up arbitrary standards to guide us to our dream of what we think we ought to be. These standards are forever changing to accommodate our purpose as we use and abuse our world and others to accomplish our goals.

When we create an image in our minds of what we want to be, it is usually built around the idea of gaining the approval of others. More often than not it is built around how we think others perceive us. Somehow the world convinces us that we need its acceptance. We are convinced we need the approval of others to feel good about ourselves.

There are self-sacrificing people who seem to be really humble servants, but their service is rendered in an effort to gain the approval of others. There was a fellow who worked 9 to 5 during the week, and a part time job on the weekends just so his family could live the lifestyle his wife desired. His friends constantly called on him to help them with their odd jobs. His church took advantage of him because they knew he was a “good ole Joe.” However, his service was rendered to gain their approval. They knew all they had to do to get him to do something was to pull this invisible lever and he would do it. The lever was his desire to please others to gain acceptance. He felt like he had to do live up to how they perceived him.1

We spend our lives building relationships, striving to please people and win their respect. Our children bow to this kind of pressure. We see them buying cell phones, shoes, clothes and cutting their hair in a certain way in an attempt to fit into with those they want to be their friends.

The world convinces us that if we buy into their image of us we will run faster, go farther, and be wiser. Have you notice how advertisements lead you to believe that if you buy what is being advertised you will increase your self-worth. If you wear the same shoes your sports heroes wear, you will run or play as well as they play.

I remember my brothers and me getting a new pair of tennis shoes and new blue jeans when we were kids. We put them on and went outside to play. We thought the shoes would allow us to run faster and jump higher. We set ourselves up to get a running start to jump a barbed wire fence. I ran and jumped, but I didn’t clear the fence. My new jeans were caught in the fence and ripped from the bend of my knee all the way up to my buttock. We learned that it takes more than shoes to jump higher.

Consequences of World’s Approval

The difficulty of living up to the world’s image of us is that it enslaves us to the world’s perception of us. We live in fear of not fitting in, of being different, and feeling inadequate. The motive for living is the fear of not measuring up. When we do measure up, we continue to fear not being able to continue measuring up.

This kind of living leaves us vulnerable. This kind of living leaves us wide open to being manipulated by others. It will also lead us to feeling that others are always manipulating us; even when they are sincerely seeking our help, or trying to help us.

Living this kind of life leaves us wide open to anger and bitterness, when we do not gain the approval we have sought. Bitterness usually ends in hostility.

We have a choice we can live to please men or we can live to please God. James says, “Friendship of the world is hatred toward God” (James 4:4). Paul writes, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10 NIV).

We bring this attitude toward the world into our relationship with God. We think we have to win God’s approval. Resting in God’s graces is much different than living in the world’s graces. A lady said her father never really came to the point of resting confidently in his relationship with her mother. He was always giving her expensive presents and surprising her with things. But her mother would sometimes say, “You really don’t need to go to all this trouble. I appreciate it but I love you anyway.”2

The father, it seems, was continually trying to earn the love and appreciation of his wife, though this was unnecessary-the love was already there and didn’t need to be deserved. Yet he could not rest in it.3

The same thing happens easily in our relationship with God. We know mentally that God accepts us as his children. But emotionally, we can’t rest in our relationship with him. We’re often hounded by the idea that we must do all sorts of things in order not to fall out of his favor.4

Winning God’s favor is really a backhanded way of getting God to praise us for all of our hard work. It is as if we are here to get God to praise us. It is seemingly easy to start out worshipping God, and end up using religion for self-glorification. Many of the religious Jews walked around with fasting faces. They wore sad faces when they fasted to be seen of others. They loved long prayers—or standing on the street corner with hands stretched toward heaven so people could see their piety. They did their works to be seen by men.

An Alternative Lifestyle

Seeking the praises of the world is to steal God’s glory. Ananias and Sapphira were guilty of stealing God’s glory. What a glorious move the first Christians made when they sold their houses and lands to help those in need. Can you image people selling or mortgaging property today to advance the cause of Christ—to help those in need. Yet, some come to religion to glorify themselves.

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.

3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"

9 Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."

10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. NIV

Do we seek the praises of the world or do we seek to live in such a way so as to persuade the world to praise God. Persuading the world to praise God involves allowing God to use all my resources to bring honor and glory to HIM. It involves investing all my treasures in heaven.

Judas was concerned that the ointment used to anoint Jesus should have been used to feed the poor. But John writes, “He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it” (John 12:6 NIV) Judas was seeking his own interests—his own praise.

There was a prayer faithful Jews uttered daily. They sought God’s graciousness and blessings so that God’s salvation might be known among all nations. They sought to be blessed so that God would be glorified.

Here is an alternative to seeking the praises of the world for ourselves. The Jews sought God’s blessings so the world might know the God they worshipped. The world would look at them and say, “My, look what their God has done for them.”

We have a choice of living for self-glory—to build our personal self-worth—or to allow God to glorify himself through us.

THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN LIVE FOR GOD’S GLORY WITHOUT SHARING IN HIS GLORY. When we praise God the world will see his blessings upon us and the earth will reverence him. When we disobey God the world will also see God’s discipline upon us. The world saw God’s discipline upon the Jews when they forsook God in Old Testament history.

God has called us to live an alternate lifestyle--God has called us to live a life to glorify him. We may think living to glorify God means we are living to seek his approval, but this is not the case. We live to glorify God because he has already accepted us.

God has reconciled us through his Son Jesus Christ. He has made us acceptable in Christ. God chose us before we were born; he has made us accepted us in Christ (Ephesians 1:4, 6). Coming to Christ is not about winning his favor; it is about accepting God’s estimate of us.

Coming to Christ is about accepting God’s estimate of us. God seeks to restore us to his estimate of us through his Son. He seeks to restore his rule upon earth through us as he crowns us as kings and priests (Revelation 1:6).

We don’t worship God to earn his favor or the favor of others. We don’t study the word of God to gain God’s favor. We study God’s word so that he can correct our thinking. We don’t have morning devotionals just to do something spiritual or to earn a place in heaven. It isn’t a good work to win God’s favor.

The world persuades us to judge our lives by how we measure up in our circumstances. We are constantly seeking to measure up to the demand of our world. We are to be whatever our circumstances demand at the moment. This is the best way to lose sight of God. The more I look at my circumstances and myself, the more I lose sight of God.

God is here to change our focus. The first four of the Ten Commandments instruct us to honor God. The remainder of the commandments instructs us on how to live with our fellowman in such a way so as to bring honor to God. Honor our parents, don’t lie, steal, commit adultery, or live a covetous life. The first commandments instruct us to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind, the second part instructs us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The first commandments are about honoring God. Honoring God changes how we see others—we begin seeing them as people who need to be treated as God wants them treated. There is no better way to honor God than to honor those he created in his own image.

This makes for a life that seeks to persuade others to glorify God. It is not a life that says “Look at what a good boy I am.”

God’s law is reciprocal. You receive back what you give. Jesus used an agrarian metaphor to describe how we are to give to others.

37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." NIV

You don’s just pour the container full of seed, you shake it down to make it settle down in the container, then you press it down, and then you run it over to make sure the buyer gets a good measure. Jesus says, if you give good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and run it over the edges and you will receive in the same manner (Luke 6:38).

You can’t bless others without being blessed. You can’t bless your enemies without being blessed. You can’t glorify God without sharing in his glory.

Esau sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son of Jacob for a single meal. The Hebrew writer says, “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son” (Hebrews 12:16 NIV). He forfeited his future for a bowl of soup.

We might think how silly, selling your future for a bowl of soup. How many times do we buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to please people we don’t even like. It is like giving up all you could ever hope to be or have, to live up to the world’s expectations. It’s a sure way to miss God’s purpose for your life.

1 Robert S. McGee, The Search for Significance, Rapha Publishing, Houston, Texas. Pg. 63.

2 Gert Doornenbal, How to rest in your relationship with God, Discipleship Journal, May/June 1982

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

Bible Study Questions

1. What is the fallacy of building our lives to gain the approval of others?

2. What are some of the things we do to gain the approval of others?

3. How is modern day advertising used to get us to buy into this idea?

4. What are the consequences of seeking the world’s approval?

5. What happens with our relationship with God when we live to seek the world’s approval?

6. How does living to gain the approval of the world steal the glory that belongs to God?

7. How do Ananias and Sapphira exemplify those who would steal God’s glory?

8. Discuss Psalms 67 and how it relates to reflecting God’s glory?

9. Discuss how life is reciprocal?

10. How does blessing our enemies bless us?

11. How is God honored when we honor others?

Discovering Spiritual Healing

Hebrews 12:16

Jim Davis

Consequences of World’s Approval

An Alternative Lifestyle