John 16:5-11
But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
One of the major challenges in life is adequately establishing your God given purpose over your worldly identity. While the two are intrinsically connected, only one can take the lead. And for us believers, that lead must be God’s identity of us. We must endeavor to identify with Him and He with us.
The reason I call this a challenge is because everything in life constantly strives for your affection, time and compliance. While you were still in your mother’s womb, plans were being made for you. People were deciding who you would be and what you could become. And those opinions and beliefs are inescapable. You hear them day after day, year after year. It becomes impossible to ignore them, but imperative that you don’t let them control you. Nothing is more depressing than trying to live a life that isn’t you. Too many of us have spent too many years trying to make everyone else happy at the expense of being what you know in your heart God wants you to be. But it’s not easy to escape. You need help. You need a Helper.
Another challenge in clearly defining yourself, is moderating your opinion of yourself. Are you too high on yourself? Or too low? Balance is the key. The Bible clearly admonishes that we not think more highly of ourselves than we ought (Romans 12:3). This warning is not simply because the Lord doesn’t want us to be overly arrogant, but instead desperately wants us to focus our trust and faith on Him. Think about it, relying on ourselves can only yield what little we have inside. Making ourselves the center of our universe severely limits our universe and the possibility of becoming so much more. I love the quote of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians where he reveals, “…Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Clearly it’s not us but the Spirit within that makes the difference in our lives. We can’t do anything without His help. We need the Helper.
And for those of us that suffer from low self esteem, the Word is filled with inspiration. For example Romans 8: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And there are hundreds more. However, to go from the low of self degradation to true spiritual enlightenment necessitates divine help from the Lord. And thank God for Jesus who has sent His own Spirit as Comforter, Advocate, Paraclete, Counselor, Teacher and Helper.
The absence of the Risen Christ opened the door of opportunity for each of us to become inheritors of the divine promise: The promise of eternal life. But not just life after death, but quite the contrary. We are recipients of eternal life right now. As we live and experience the presence of the Lord in our daily lives and living, we are the actual embodiment of the power, purpose and position of the Risen Savior.
People of God, to enjoy such a rich inheritance we must overcome the opinions of others, the temptation of self indulgence and the fallacy of faulty reasoning. We must stand on what the Lord has declared about us over what man has to say; even when the man is us. The operative phrase to truly combat all our individual challenges is simply to say, Lord, I Need Help!
God Bless
