You are Nothing.......... If you stand alone.

“Guess what?

You are not enough.

Why do you keep trying?

Give up. “

It’s true, what I said last time. (You need to read this post before you can read the one you're at now. It is imperative. Sorry.) [(... I'm not actually sorry. Go read it.)]

Yeah, so maybe the post was a little cruel sounding (You: A little cruel sounding? A Little, cruel sounding? You sick, sadistic human being…) Well, alright. So maybe a little more than a little harsh.

But why dance around it? It’s something we all hear, something we all feel.. Why pretend that isn’t an accusation on your heart?

If no one brings up the cruel things in life, all our problems will never be solved.

That’s my theory, anyways. (You: Well, your theory sucks.) Fine, I’ll write about kittens next time.

But until then, lemme finish up here. Last week’s post was not a meandering stab at your heart. 

We’ve all heard the saying, “The truth will set you free.” And we all know, it’s true. 

But context is everything.

If I were to look a girl in the eyes and say “You are beautiful,” she’d probably smile. It’d hit her heart a little, but not much. However, if a guy did the same thing, she’d probably blush a little and she’d feel it more. She’d believe it a little more. And if the guy she likes did the exact same thing, she’d be on cloud nine. She’d spend the rest of the day living off the emotions from that comment. 

One truth. Three reactions.

Now, take the phrase “You’re beautiful,” and put it into advertising. Stick it on the walls of Victoria’s Secret. Stick it in a shampoo commercial. Suddenly, this truth is a ploy. A lure. A trap of sorts. 

Give the phrase to a rapist (Or, you know, someone friendlier. A player maybe.) Now this truth is deadly.

The truth in and of itself is neutral. It’s how you use it that counts.

Now that we’ve settled that, let’s move on.

“You are not enough.” 

That’s another truth. Do you see where I’m going with this? When we hear this one, we immediately rebel against it. “No! I am enough!” we cry, desperately hoping to ease the pain we feel. 

And that’s exactly the reaction the enemy would want. I don’t talk about spirit stuff much. I mostly just lean towards God. But allow me to introduce you to the dark side, and what the dark side does.

The truth is, you alone are not enough. 

God designed you to work with people, and most importantly to work with him. Companionship. We weren’t made to lean solely upon ourselves. But then the prince of shadows came along and said, “Hmm. If I focus on that truth, I bet you the sad little humans’ll start running from it.” And that’s exactly what has happened. When you take the truth out of the context of leaning on God, suddenly, you feel weak. You feel insignificant. And, you have no reasoning behind it. 

The truth is, you are weak.

The truth is, you are insignificant.

The truth is, you were made to lean on God and you were made to find your significance in Him. 

But we’ve turned from that and we’ve built our own lies. We call them the truth, because they feel safer than the accusations of our hearts. And still, the accusations stand because, well, the accusations are not false.

It all depends on the context. It all depends on what you finish the sentence with. On where it comes from. On who’s saying it. On what meaning you give it.

It's time for a change.

You are not enough… Because you need God.

Why do you keep trying? … Your insistence on leaning upon your brokenness is killing you.

Give up…. And let God take control. 

Let it fall where it may. When you are looking at God, the world around you stops mattering.

You can’t hold it up. It’s not your place.

So.

Stop.

~Silver

The image of God... Sins?

Continuing the last train of thought, lets go from the fact that we’re made in his image to why, if we are reflections of the living God, do we sin?

Let’s think about this logically.

God made man in His image, the image of love (See last post).

But he didn’t just make these mature beings who would know the very power and purpose of love. He made Adam and Eve and gave them a choice: to love him or to love themselves. Surprise of surprises, they chose themselves over Him. We all do. Every day. Which is where the concept of sin came from.

Here. I’ll make an acronym for it. Selfish Intentions Named Supreme. That is what our sins are. Straight up.

Make sense?

Because every day God chooses us over himself. Every day God chooses to love us.

In fact, Jesus, the exact representation of the father, decided to give up his place in heaven watching us… So he could walk with us… Be hated by us… And then.. Get beaten and die. And not just get beaten and die, but be forsaken by God. And now he sits in heaven not just watching over us, but spending his time Pleading for our lives, giving his life still every day so that we can be whole. Reminding his father of what he did.

Not that God forgets. But we see it everywhere in the bible, “Remember your servant oh Lord…” and especially with Israel, in Genesis and Exodus. Moses reminds God over and over again of God’s promises.

Honestly, I think God likes being reminded. Because when you’re reminded of a moment that was important to you, a moment that still is important to you, it takes you to that moment and you re-live it for a moment. It also means that the person reminding you remembers it to. That that moment is not forgotten by the others, that it still holds importance and that it hasn’t been cast off. Moses still holds to the promises God made, and because Moses remembers and wants to keep it still, doesn’t want it broken off and isn’t rejecting it, it means God has a partner….

But that’s an entirely different subject.

See, most people think the opposite of love is hate. But let me tell you why it’s not. Let me explain why it’s selfishness.

Firstly we have to have a right definition of love. What does that mean? Does it mean you want to be close to someone all the time? That you want to take care of them? And hold their hand? And kiss them and make out with them and then marry them? Well, sure those can be Related to love. As in, affects of love.

But this is not love.

Loving is giving. In first and second John, he writes that Love is that we walk according to Gods commandments. (Don’t believe me? Go find it. I gave you the books didn’t I?)

Obviously this is not the only definition of love. But it’s the definition I’m working with right now we can discuss others later.

(you: discuss? I don’t see much discussing here.) Well, maybe if you commented we could have an actual discussion but so far there’s been no one to actually discuss With.

Anyways.

To Love is to Obey God’s commands. (You: well that sounds… Painful. And useless. How can that be love?)

Well, to get back to genesis and exodus, notice how obedience results in good things. In fact, in all of the OT (Old Testament). Like… David loves God with all of his heart (which, speaking of God’s commands psalm 119 is dedicated to God’s law.) and look, he became a king. Of all Israel. And then his son became king. And generations later, he becomes the many time great grandfather of the son of God.

Not that it was a cake walk. But he waited on God. Instead of saying, “God why not now can’t I be king Now and do whatever the heck I want now?” he waited for God’s timing. Meaning, the selfish ex-king Saul chased him all over the Middle East trying to kill him.

See, Saul was a good person. But he didn’t follow God’s commands, instead he chose what would make himself look better and feel better. He loved himself, not God. So the spirit of God left him and he was tormented by demons and had no rest and died knowing he had separated himself from the destiny God had had for him.

That is probably the best contrast of love and not love.

David does slip up once or twice, I know. Bathsheba, instead of leading his army in war he decided to love himself and to give himself a vacation, which lead to him stealing another man’s wife, which led to pain.

See, selfishness was his sin. Selfishness was Saul’s sin. (You: Yes yes I get the point. Selfishness is a sin.)

So, think about every sin and ask yourself, what’s the core reason for it? Adultery? Is pretty much always done for pleasuring self. So selfishness. Lying? Is used to protect self or to get self things. So selfishness. Murder? Is used to punish for a “wrong” done to self. So selfishness. Stealing? Is used to get things for self. So selfishness.

Sin is Love. Love of Self. 

(You: But, what if a man is stealing because his family can’t afford food?)

It’s still a sin because instead of leaning on God for protection, he is choosing his own strength. He is choosing himself, saying his decisions are greater than Gods and that he can provide better than God the provider can.

God, who rained bread from the sky to feed thousands of people.

The God of the Old testament has not changed. But we, in our weakness, want to say he has because he has not saved us when we wanted to be saved. He has not provided for us when we wanted to be provided for.

He has not given us what we want, so why should we give him anything?

But see here’s the thing: All that we deserve is Death. We have, ever since Eve denied God and chose to benefit herself by eating the fruit, consistently chosen ourselves.

God loved us first. He made us in his image, he gave us his own breath, and then to save us his own son, literally a part of him, became one of us and lived selflessly so he could (still selflessly) die.

He already did the hardest thing. But we think it’s too hard to let go of ourselves and to be take care of.

Isn’t it funny? All God wants us to do is follow his commandments so that he can take care of us, but we don’t think it’s fair that we have to do what he wants instead of what we want?

As if we can satisfy our own souls.

Comments are welcome, arguments are welcome. You can find everything in the bible; 1^st and 2^nd Samuel have David and Saul’s lives, Psalms has David’s personal cries to God… Etc.

Blessings, and I hope you love today J

~Silver