No Escape
Wherever you go there you are. You can’t escape from yourself. The apostle Paul said, “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” As Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry said after a naval battle in the war of 1812, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” If you think of yourself you’ll be depressed, if you think of the circumstances, you’ll be stressed, but if you think of the Lord, you’ll be blessed.
Without a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, Men can’t escape the insidious preoccupation with self. The basis of the sin nature is pride. The devil beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden when he appealed to her pride. He said to her, “God’s not God, you are. If you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, you’ll be like God.” You won’t need God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they lost their innocence. Their eyes were opened to the nature of sin, guilt, shame and death. God had said, “on the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die.” They died spiritually that day…disobedience separated them from God. We inherited Adam’s sin nature, his DNA, the genetic “man code”… without God and without hope. The sin nature makes men fearful, lonely, inadequate, and insecure.
According to Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
Verse 15 says, “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one (Adam) many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”
Most men don’t like themselves. As Paul said, “the things that I don’t want to do I do, and the things that I want to do I don’t do. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this dead body.”
The self absorbed man says, “I may not be much, but I’m all I think about.” Egotism is excessive preoccupation with self. The world’s man code says “I’m capable of meeting my own needs.” Self confidence is confidence in my own abilities. The world repeats the devil’s original lie: You don’t need God…you can do it all by yourself.
However, Jeremiah 17:9-10 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10. I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
Philippians 3 says, “do nothing through selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind consider others more important than yourself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest but look out for the interest of others. Have this attitude which was also in Christ.”
Philippians’ theme is the Joyful mind. You can’t choose your circumstances but you can choose your attitude. Philippians continues about Jesus Christ: 6. “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Jesus gave up the right to himself and relinquished his own will to obey his Father’s will. We may not know the purposes for God’s plan for our lives but we understand that he’s a good, good Father. He has a better plan for us than we could ever imagine. The bond-servant is not bound by law or obligation, rather he is bound by love to willingly serve his master with joy and rejoicing.
Jesus Christ emptied himself and became obedient to death on the cross. In his obedience to his Father he who was without sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
According to Philippians 3:9-10, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,”
What God really wants from me is obedience. What we do for God glorifies God and not our ourselves. We have been called “to the praise of the glory of his grace who has made us acceptable in the beloved.”
The old man code says, “I want praise and glory for myself.” However, humility is the antidote to pride. Let all things be done to his glory and not our own. Obedience to God means that our heart is subject to his will. Jesus said to Peter, “lovest me more than these?” Do you love me more than your fishing business and your fishing buddies? ”
Ye are servants of whom you obey. We who have been born again of God’s spirit, can chose whom to serve: our own ego’s or our Lord Jesus Christ. Our calling is to serve our Master from a heart of humility and love. As Oswald Chambers said, humility defeats the “insidious preoccupation with self.” Jesus said, whoever keeps his life shall lose it, but whoever gives his life for my sake will save it.”
The antidote to an insidious preoccupation with self is, “humble thyself under the mighty hand of God and in due time he will exalt you.” We may not understand what he’s doing in our lives but we understand his heart…for he is a good, good Father… a God of loving kindness, tender mercy and gracious love.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael