“A friend drops in to see me. What is he thinking? Does he not understand that life is a movie about me. The audacity to come to my soundstage and interrupt the obvious flow of the story… My mind is like a radio that picks up only one station, the one that plays me. This is the most difficult lie I have ever contended with: Life is a story about me. No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me; all people are characters in my play. There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction.”
The above was excerpted from a once popular book by a popular author. Who he is holds not the importance of what he says. For the Christian, this is probably the biggest battle of our lives: SELF. We will spend a lifetime ridding this flesh of self. We reek with self. Our thoughts are permeated with self. Even our seemingly justifiable impatience with the sins of others is only selfish pride.
David Platt said, “God is the goal… People today are crying out for practical application when it comes to God’s Word. They want to see the Bible’s relevance for their lives. But there is a dangerous tendency in our day to focus so much on contemporary application that we begin to look at the Bible with man-centered eyes. Our infatuation with practical application can cause us to overlook the most important quality of the Bible: its DIVINE feature. We can run right past GOD looking for help for men!!! The Bible is a book about God more than it is a book about us. A picture of God feeds well!!”
He goes on to say, “God’s agenda in Scripture is to glorify Himself through the recreation of His image in His people. We are to be conformed to the image of Christ, to look like Jesus! The Divine Text is truth revealed by God to bring people to Jesus and to mold them into His likeness. The more people look like Jesus, the more they are in tune with the Spirit of God when they face situations in life.”
Our prayer should be, “God cleanse me of me and fill me with Thee!” It’s a daily battle well-worth fighting. And the great news is that we are powerless but He is Continual Power as we call on Him. “Filled to the measure of all the fullness of Christ.” “Run with perseverance, the race marked out for us.” God has done the “marking” and He alone does the “filling”. We just know the truth and obey.
