For as long as I can remember my wife has been trying to instill this simple saying into the minds and hearts of our kids:
You are the head and not the tail, you are above and not below,
You will find favor with man and God,
Because you were created in the image of God,
To do good things and to love people…
Every morning as my kids head out the door for school, starting at the age of 5 with my now 21 yr old son, she would begin this saying in the hopes of one day each and every one knowing it by heart. As many of you know, we have 7 children of all different ages, so as you can imagine, we have varying degrees of memorization at all times. Some know the phrase by heart, some need mom to begin each sentence and they finish, and others simply have to repeat it after their mother says it. Regardless of where they fall along that line, each unknowingly is reciting a portion of scripture each and every morn before they begin their day.
This simple saying is based off the following portion of scripture in Duet.? And although it isn’t the exact words, it has been adjusted for simpolicity with our kids, we believe it is an important truth that God wants each of us to know about ourselves.
I remember one day when my daughter was about 11 yrs old and heading off to school. She had informed us earlier that day she would have to take part in a mile run at school for gym class. And although dad is big into athletics, this particular daughter was pulled out of the other side of the gene pool! She has wanted nothing to do with athletics most of her life and definitely dreaded any activity that involved a great deal of running. So needless to say, she was quite nervous and upset as she headed off to the bus.
As she was walking down the driveway toward her ‘worst day ever’, her mom began yelling out our little saying:
You are the head… to which she would finish, “and not the tail’,
You are above… ‘and not below’…
You will find favor… ‘with man and God’
Although my daughter was finishing the saying, it had become more of a mumble and was almost inaudible at this time. So to make the final statement before she headed over the hill and off to school, her mother screamed…
“YOU WERE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD!”
Just then her head disappeared over the hill and we sat wondering for a second if she heard that last line. But, we didn’t have to wait long, because roaring back at us from the bottom of the hill came…
“Well, obviously God is NOT athletic!”
We didn’t stop laughing for about 5 minutes after her response and to this day share that story to get a laugh. But, the interesting thing is that she is not the first person who has ever taken their identity from their own set of skills, or lack there of, instead of grabbing hold of the truth that they were created in the image of God.
Can any of you tell me that you haven’t, at one time or another, sat back and looked at your lack of skills, your weaknesses or your limitations and defined your identity based on them? Have you ever told yourself, “There is no way I can do! Bec I can’t…” Or how about, “There is no way God could use me in this capacity, I don’t look the part… I don’t have the proper skills… I can’t…”
If you are being honest with yourself, you have not only said this once or twice, but have probably walked in this same identity for a good portion of your life. You feel that you are supposed to do something or that God is calling you to something, but these weaknesses and limitations stop you in your tracks. They prevent you from putting another foot forward, because we are so afraid of failing or being embarrassed due do those things we CAN’T do!
If that has ever been you or maybe if you are facing this same issue as you read this, I have the perfect book for you to read! It will go a long ways in showing you that regardless of where you fall short, you can still accomplish things that are unrivaled! You can do things that not only you didn’t think you could do, but things that those watching you would have bet a million dollars you would never be able to accomplish.
The book I am talking about isn’t the hottest self-help book on the market, it isn’t a motivational book as we know of them today, and it isn’t a ‘if you follow these 10 easy steps’ you can watch all your dreams come true book. The book that I am referring to is: The Bible!
Yep, that old book that is full of old stories about old people that really don’t relate to us today!
The amazing thing about the Bible is that those old stories about old people are incredibly relevant to us today, if we know how to look at them and what God was trying to portray with each of these men and women. It is also amazing to think that even these old people from the early stages of the Bible faced the same identity crisis that we face right here in the year 2010!
Anybody ever heard of Moses? Thought most of you would have. If you go to the book of Exodus 4:10+, when God was calling Moses to lead his people out of bondage and into the Pland, you will see that Moses struggled with how God could use him. In this portion of scripture God was telling Moses that he wanted him to go and tell Pharaoh to let His people go. God wanted Moses to be His mouthpiece to the Pharaoh and to His people.
But, Moses’ first response was something similar to my daughter’s that fateful day. Moses began by telling God he wasn’t capable of speaking on His behalf. He wasn’t very good with words and he even had a speaking problem. It would just be a disaster if God actually chose him for this position – it would be ugly. So he actually spent some time trying to convince God that He was making a bad choice.
To make His point, God responded to Moses by basically saying, ‘don’t you know that I made you in my own image?’ To which Moses was most surely saying in his head, “Well, then obviously you can’t speak very well either!’
God told Moses, “Who was it that made man? Who was it that made the mouth you speak of? There is not need to worry about your limits, because where you leave off I will pick up! Where you are not capable, I am more than capable! Trust in me and NOT in yourself.”
And the other thing we have to remember here is that God is speaking to Moses AUDIBLY! It isn’t like he wasn’t sure if God was calling him to this or wasn’t sure if he was really hearing the voice of God – there was NO DOUBT what God was telling him. But, even with that clarity, Moses couldn’t get past his limitations to step into what God was calling him too.
He reluctantly accepted as long as his brother? Aaron could actually do the talking! Obviously God was extremely excited with Moses’ lack of faith, but for some reason He chose to go along with it and in the process taught Moses an incredible important message, “It’s Not about You, It’s about God!”
As we all know God went on to use Moses in some incredible ways, leading his people out of slavery and for forty years in the desert!
But, He is not the only one who suffered from this identity crisis.
Some of you may have heard of Gideon, who would become one of God’s greatest warriors. But, He didn’t believe it was possible when God called him either. If you take a look at Judges 6:13+, you will see that when God called him he had his own set of excuses.
Gideon began to point out to God, as if God didn’t already know, that he was from the weakest clan in the tribe. And not only was his clan the weakest, but he was also the weakest, the runt of his own clan. So really, he was saying he was the least of the least! God would be much better served to go out and find someone else to do the fighting for him.
Again, reluctantly, Gideon decided to go along with God’s plan. But, there was no way he was going to go at it on his own merit, so to subsidize where he was weak, he brought with him 20,000 of the nation’s best fighters. At least, this way he would be able to cover for his own deficiencies!
But, God didn’t really care for Gideon’s plan. God told Gideon that if they went to battle with 20K men it would defeat the purpose for which God had, it would allow for the men to boast in their own skills instead of trusting in God! So Gideon sent 10K men home. But, God said this was still too many, so he told Gideon only to take the men who passed a particular test. It turned out that only 300 men ended up passing this teat – 300!
So you can only imagine what Gideon must be thinking right about now, “Oh Great, I’m dead! Why did I agree to this whole thing? Me, little, weak, old me and 300 men against an army of warriors! This SUCKS!”
As I am sure you all guessed, not only did Gideon go to war and win, but he and God’s army destroyed the Midianites! And Gideon got to see first hand and teach us a lesson along the way – oh yeah, and he didn’t die either – what it means to trust in the strength of God and NOT ourselves.
A third story that always jumps out at me is the story of King David. A man that God would one day call, “A man after my own heart”. But, the beginning of David’s call was anything buy ceremonious. When Samuel was told by God to visit the house of Jesse and anoint one of his son’s the next King of Israel, he was definitely the longshot.
He was so much of a longshot that when Samuel arrived and told Jesse of his business, Jesse didn’t even invite David in from the fields ( 1 Sam 16:6+). Jesse was so sure that David was not the chosen one he simply lined up his other 7 boys and told Samuel to have at it. All of Jesse’s boys were described to LOOK the part of a King: strong, handsome, refined, etc… But, one by one, Samuel went down the line and did not pick any of the 7.
He was a bit perplexed as was Jesse, but then he asked the father if he happened to have any other sons. At which time Jesse remembered David was tending to the sheep in the field and reluctantly said, “yes, but surely he is not the next king”.
It is funny that sometimes our identity of who we are and what we can do doesn’t come directly from our own thoughts, but are ingrained in us by those around us. We are continually told what we can’t do or where we lack the skills to truly accomplish something and ultimately we begin to believe it. We begin to look at ourselves through the eyes of a pessimist instead of an optimist.
The great thing about all of these stories is that God never defines us like we so often does! He doesn’t care what we look like or what skills we have or don’t have, all He cares about is our willingness to make whatever we do possess available to Him.
The problem is there is an enemy out there that is trying to prevent us from knowing God has BIG plans for us and that He can do GREAT things with us. And too often we can’t get our minds off what the enemy is selling, and that consumption prevents us from seeing our true worth in God.
I remember a time where the kids and I were visiting the STLouis zoo. We had the privilege of being able to go behind the scenes of the tiger pit. They took us into a 200 foot chained-link fence walkway with the tigers just inches from where we were walking. We would walk up and down the corridor as the guide would tell us interesting facts about these amazing creatures, but like the rest of my party we didn’t hear a single one bec we were too busy staring at the massive creature waiting to EAT us!
At one point the guide told us to look at the eyes of the tiger. He asked if we noticed the tiger was not looking back and forth thru the group but kept his eyes fixed on only the smaller ones in the group. He told us that he is studying the weakest one in hopes that they will stray away from the pack and he can devour them. (Really thought that was something he should have shared after we left the corridor, but that’s just me!)
So next, he took us down to one end of the corridor as the tiger walked away and laid in the grass about 50 yards away. At that point he asked the two little kids to race down to the other end of the corridor, touch the wall and come back. Since he made it a game they were more than excited to oblige. We all hollered out 1, 2, 3… Go!
As soon as the kids took off the guide told the rest of us to watch the tiger. The whole time he had never taken his eyes off our pack and as soon as the little ones separated from the rest of us the tiger took off! He covered 50 yards in matter or seconds and would have devoured my two kids effortlessly had there not been a chained-linked fence between them. What had started out as a fun game, quickly became a panic situation for our kids as they turned around screaming and ran back to us.
My wife and I were pissed at this point! How could this guide just put our kids in that situation without even asking us? I know that he knew they would be fine, but to scare them like that wasn’t what we were looking for on our day long trip to the zoo.
Anyways, that whole sequence of events really impacted me in regards to my spiritual understanding. I know there is a verse in 1 Peter 5:8 that states, “Stay alert. The enemy prowls around like a roaring lion (TIGER) waiting for someone to devour!”
I couldn’t help but take this scenario and begin to apply it to our spiritual lives. To see that the enemy is continually on guard to take down the weakest members of the church. He is aware of us at all times and simply waits until we place ourselves in a vulnerable situation and then tries to take us down.
And in thinking about this scenario I began to wonder what is it that makes us weak in regards to our spiritual walks? I came up with a number of things, but for me the most prominent thing that I could come up with was the way we try and live our lives by our own strength, instead of God’s!
I believe the enemy wants us to live everyday looking at our own limitations and weaknesses. He wants us to wallow in our own self-pity bec we don’t have what the world says we need to change it. Just exactly like he did with Moses, Gideon, David, and so many others!
If the enemy can keep us looking in the mirror at ourselves and only stepping out or accomplishing things we can do in our own strength, then he knows he is going to win! He knows that the world can not be changed (in a dramatic way) and God’s greatness can not be on display if all we ever do can be accomplished by ourselves.
But, I look around at the church and I see people who are continually suppressing God’s call on their lives bec they don’t think they have what it takes to accomplish what God is asking of them. I see people that use their lack of skill or particular circumstances as an excuse to stay locked up tight where life is comfortable, yet unchanging!
As I think back to the scenario with the tiger I couldn’t help but think about the guide’s actions that day. The way he so flippantly sent my kids running to the other side without being aware that a giant 300 lb tiger was going to charge them in an incredible intimidating way! But, after getting over my anger towards him, he taught me a very valuable lesson! He showed me that the reason he didn’t worry about the kids and was willing to show us this awesome display is bec he KNEW there was a large, strong chained-linked fence between the children and the tiger!
He had complete trust that there was no way for the tiger to get thru that fence and hurt our children. He wasn’t worried that the tiger was faster than our kids! He wasn’t worried that the tiger was smarter than our kids! He didn’t worry that the tiger was stronger than our kids! Because his faith was never in our kids to handle the situation it was always in the fence.
To me this is a perfect analogy for each of us as we develop our faith. So often we get upset or angry or intimidated because we simply view our skills in direct comparison to those of the enemy (or the daunting tasked we are faced with). We sit and make our big, long list of why there is no way we would be able to overcome the task sitting in front of us, because as far as we can tell we just don’t have the means necessary within ourselves.
What I learned from our zoo guide that day is how much easy life’s situations are if we know where to place our trust. If we know where our strength lies and how strong we really are because of it, we would approach so much in life quite differently!
This reminds me of one of my favorite passages of scripture. It is the story of the apostle Peter walking on water (Matt.14:29). The passage begins with the apostles traveling in a boat in the middle of a storm. Sometime along their journey Jesus approaches them walking on the water. The apostles notice him and begin an interaction with them. In the middle of this interaction Peter says to Jesus, “Lord if that is you, bid me come (tell me to walk on water to you).”
At which time Jesus tells him to come. Peter immediately steps out of the boat (let us be reminded that he was the ONLY one who made that step) and begins to walk on water. Everything was going great until Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began looking at the situation he was in. He began to realize he was walking on water and he wasn’t supposed to be. He began to notice the circumstances of the waves and storm and those things took on more prominence in his mind than Jesus did. As he began to look at himself and his limitations, what happened?
(Quick side note: When I was giving this sermon to Make-a-Wish families, I asked the kids if they knew what happened to Peter when he took his eyes off of Jesus on the water. My 4yr old, bless her heart, quickly yelled out in the service “He was eated by a whale!” I loved her answer and that she knew the story of Jonah, but I had to tell her no and get the right answer. But, she was embarrassed and began sobbing in the middle of the service! I so wanted to say to the parents of the child, could you please remove your daughter she is disturbing the service for everyone else, but couldn’t bec it was MY child!)
So the correct answer to what happened to, was that he began to sink as soon as his eyes were placed on himself instead of Jesus. Of course, Jesus was there to grab his hand and save him from anything worse happening to him, but man did he miss out on an amazing opportunity!
Now, we can’t lose sight of the fact that Peter was the only one who did step out of the boat. Or that as far as I know, Peter is the only other person besides Jesus who has ever walked on water (even if for a short time). It’s just too bad that he had to mess up the whole experience by allowing himself to get in the way.
The problem is, most of us are just like Peter in this regard. Either we don’t ever step out of the boat bec we just know we don’t have what it takes to walk on water or if we do step out of the boat, trusting God, at some point we allow ourselves or our circumstances to get in the way and we begin to sink!
So what is the message in this story? I think it is two-fold!
First, I believe the primary message is that regardless of your limitations and regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in (faced with a disease, without a job, loss in your family, stuck in dead-end job with no way out, etc, etc, etc…) Jesus wants YOU to WALK ON WATER!
I don’t believe that God only selects certain people to shine brightly for him, I believe that He wants all of us to do that. The problem is that only a few make themselves truly available to be used in this way! Only a few are willing to put that first foot over the edge of the boat and shift their weight towards the water!
And of course, the second message is that there is NO way for you to walk on water in your own strength! You are limited! You can’t do EVERYTHING! Sorry, there may be some of you who think you aren’t or that you can, but I don’t believe that person exists, outside of Jesus!
But, the great thing about this is that once we are willing to accept this and lean on God, we become so much stronger. 2 Cor. 12:9-10 states, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
So let me finish here, 1 Sam 16:7. This is the portion of scripture where Samuel has come to Jesse’s house to anoint the next king of Israel. They have taken a look at all of Jesse’s older sons and determined that God hasn’t chosen any of them and so Jesse speaks of his 7th son David to be brought in from the fields.
Samuel makes a statement from God saying, “Pay no attention to what something looks like. God does not look at things (judege) like man looks at things (judges). Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart!”
How true is this statement about man? Everywhere you look in this culture we base things on appearance. It’s all about what you wear, what you look like, how skinny you are, how fast you can run, how handsome or pretty you are (by world’s standard), and the list goes on. So much of the life we live is based on what WE feel WE bring to the table.
God wants all of you to know that he is really ONLY looking for one thing: YOUR HEART!
He doesn’t care what you look like! He doesn’t care how talented you are! He doesn’t care what kind of baggage you bring with you! He doesn’t care whether you are ‘so called’ broken physically or spiritually! He doesn’t care if you are going thru a difficult or busy time in your life! He doesn’t care about all the STUFF that makes up your life (doesn’t mean He doesn’t care about what u r going thru, it just means He doesn’t care in regards to stopping you from stepping into ur calling)!
What He cares about is whether or not you are willing to give him our heart! And He wants all of it! For He knows if you give him all of your heart, He will be able to help (relative term bec it’s really all HIM) you Walk On Water!
He wants you to do great things! He wants you to shine for all the world to see! He wants you to step out of the boat everyday and Walk with Him! That is all God is looking for. Can you give him that?
The saying I shared at the beginning of this letter, that my wife recites with all the kids before they head off to school has had an addition to it in recent years. After saying what I wrote earlier, she has since added this phrase to bring it to a close.
“You are Strong and Beautiful”. Then she asked our kids where they get their beauty and they all put there hand over there heart’s and respond, “In our Hearts!”
My message to all of you is that you too are strong and beautiful! Yes you are physically strong and beautiful to varying degrees according to the world, but thank goodness for us, God isn’t judging you according to that!
God is looking at your hearts. He is looking at the one thing, above all others, that He created in His image. We all have the ability to Love, Trust, and Give in our heats and it’s what makes us like our Heavenly Father!
My challenge for all of you is to GIVE your heart to Jesus! To stop walking thru life looking in the mirror and basing your worth on what you see! Give God everything you have, no matter how great or how lousy in your mind, and watch what He can do with you.
It’s time to stop responding to God like we are accustomed too, “You are made in the IMAGE of God…So obviously God is NOT athletic… is NOT beautiful… is NOT talented… is NOT good with words…”
And it’s time to start responding with, “I am made in the IMAGE of God, so I am strong and beautiful and wonderfully made! I was made unique and gifted to accomplish great things for Him through my faith and my love! Thanks for making me in your IMAGE, now here I am use me, so that I can reflect your greatness!”
So my question for you today is, “What’cha Looking At?”
Are you spending all your time in your room, looking in your mirror, at yourself and basing your worth on the reflection you see?
Or have you stepped into your Father’s room and stood in front of Him, looking into His eyes to hear what it is that He sees? I hope so, bec then you can start seeing who you really are and how much you are really worth!
So put down your weaknesses, your limitations, your looks, your disease, your struggles, and your circumstances and leave them in the boat… it’s time for all of you to take hold of Jesus’ hand and start Walking on Water!
It’s your choice… but I will finish by saying, once you do step out of the book, always ask yourself, “What’cha Looking At?”
YBIC (Your Brother In Christ), KW
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