Hebrews 10:14 ( NKJV )
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
This week I have been discussing the idea that we, as Christians, should not be living a “sin conscious”life but that we should be developing a righteousness consciousness. This stems from the transfer of as sense of guilt to all mankind as a result of the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden. This underlying sense of guilt combines with our own life experiences and personal failures to create many emotional and psychological problems. The solution is to clean up the “muck” of this underlying guilt, or unrighteousness, by building the word of righteousness into our lives.
One of the central questions to accomplishing this is, “Who’s opinion is most important to us?” In many cases the problems we face stem from someone’s opinion. Usually it is a parent who, either through simple weakness or by forms of abuse, communicate disapproval or rejection to their children. Although parents are the most common sources of bad opinions, it might also be a sibling, a teacher, a friend or anyone else that means a great deal to us. The end result is the same. The opinion of the person who mattered so much to us becomes our opinion of our who we are. When that happens we are in for a difficult time.
Most people will respond in one of two ways. They often try to change the bad opinion through various kinds of behavior. Many become driven. They work to show whoever communicated this opinion that they were wrong. This behavior doesn’t stop when the other person dies. Most spend their whole life “measuring up” to a standard they cannot even define. This will affect relationships, work and physical and emotional health.
The second tendency is to accept the opinion and simply become that person. It may manifest in any number of ways. If they were called stupid they become stupid. If they were told they were useless they become useless. If they were continually called a “bad” person, then that’s what they become. How many tragedies have we seen develop in this way?
If we are saved, however, we do not have to let these opinions define our lives. There is another opinion that we need to cultivate. This opinion as expressed in the Word of God has a supernatural ability to override and overwrite all other opinions. It is the one person who’s opinion must matter more to us than any other. Who is that person. It is our heavenly Father, our creator and our God.
You see even our parents don’t know us like God does. He has seen every action and heard every bad thought. More than that He made us. He knows what he put into us and why we exist. Neither our parents nor any other person can say that. What is His opinion of us. The above scripture tells us that He thinks we have been made perfect. He knows we have certain things to work on, but we are in perfect relation to Him and He perfectly loves us.
To really overcome the false opinions of others we must learn what God thinks about us. Even if this is not a deep seated problem for you, developing an understanding of how God sees you will strengthen and encourage you. When we allow the opinions others to become rooted in us we tend to become that person. Imagine if we really let what God thinks of us take root in our hearts. We will become what His opinion is.
Tomorrow we will look into the Word to find out what God really thinks of you.
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