A thought by Dallas Willard (2014-02-01) from his
book, Renovation of the Heart: PuttingOn the Character of Christ (p. 100). NavPress. Kindle Edition. (Click on
the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
Does that make sense to you? Here is what Dallas says, “The image one has
of oneself, for example, can override everything else and cause one to act in
ways contrary to all reality and good sense. Those who
have been rejected or abused as children or have lived with addicted or ‘cold’
parents, have distorted images of themselves and of ‘reality.’”
He then goes on and says, “Individuals who suffer
from a poor image of themselves are caught up in self-rejection and have no
defenses against group pressures. They do not see themselves as the objects of
God’s love, and they have no place to make a stand.”
He then quotes, Henri Nouwen who noted, “Success,
popularity and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive
quality often comes from the way they are part of a much larger temptation of
self-rejection. We have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless
and unlovable, then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as
attractive solutions.” We accept it as a
fact that we deserve to be pushed aside and rejected. We see ourselves that
way. “Self-rejection,” Nouwen continued, “is the greatest enemy of the
spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the
‘Beloved.’ Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
I love what the Psalmist says in Psalm 139:13-14 (NLT), “You made all
the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank
you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” And then he says in verse 17, “How precious
are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!”
The key is what is your image of God and what do
you see is his image of you. As Dallas
says, “The person and gospel of Jesus Christ— building on simple ‘Jesus loves
me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so’— is the only complete answer to the
false and destructive images and ideas that control the life of those away from
God. The process of spiritual formation in Christ is one of progressively
replacing those destructive images and ideas with the images and ideas that filled
the mind of Jesus himself. We thereby come increasingly to see ‘the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’ (2 Corinthians 4:
4, NRSV).”
So where did you get your image of who you are? Do you want to change it?
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