One of our pastors, Mike Plewniak, preached an incredibly encouraging sermon last Sunday on Psalm 73. It particularly hit home with me because I struggle with fear of man...which can breed envy...which results in despair and a lack of faith. For me the sinful scenario in my mind sounds something like this:
"Oh! There's so-and-so! I really enjoyed talking to them last week. I wonder if they enjoyed talking to me... They probably don't even remember meeting me. They probably don't even know I'm alive. If I was funny like so-and-so they'd like me. If I dressed more hip like so-and-so they'd like me. If I was in better shape like so-and-so they'd like me. Dad-gum-it! I'm such a boring, style-less, middle-aged pudgy woman! Why am I like this? Why couldn't God make me a witty, stylish, ever-youthful, slender woman? I'd be having a whole lot more fun right now!"
You see...in my fear of man struggle I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about ME. Yes, I'm looking at others...but, only in the light of how they compare to ME. One point Mike made as we observed Asaph's struggle in Psalm 73 was, Asaph was so focused on the "life of ease" that the wealthy, prideful and wicked seemed to enjoy that he lost his contentment in God and began questioning the benefit of living a life centered on God and being pure before Him.
Mike shared a quote by David Powlison,
"We have a genius for erecting the wrong standards." Mr. Powlison describes how we determine a wrong standard then begin putting forth maximum effort to achieve that standard. He compared it to climbing a ladder to nowhere. We look horizontally...determine a standard...turn the standard into a ladder...and begin climbing. One example he used was beauty. Our culture is enamored with external beauty. Girls begin climbing the ladder of "beauty" at very young ages...leading to fractured lives consumed with eating disorders, plastic surgery, and plastic lives.
Does God value beauty as we value beauty? (Can you say "rhetorical question"?) Proverbs 31:30 says,
"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." 1 Peter 3: 3-4 says, "
Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear - but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."
So, how do we get off our ladders...whether your ladder be beauty, wealth, fame, success, etc...? Asaph got off the ladder when he went into the sanctuary of God. His language changed from "I... they" to "You" as he realized his hopelessness apart from faith in God. Mike challenged us with what Asaph learned
1) Faith looks to God...not to others 2) Faith looks to eternity 3) Faith leads to satisfaction in God.
How I long to live as if I believe with every fiber of my being what Matthew Henry said,
"All is well if God be mine."
This is not something I can "will" into being, though. It is only possible through the transforming power of the cross. The battle of fearing man is won by replacing the lies I believe with the truth that I am accepted by God because of the cross
. The battle is won by ceasing my ladder climbing and remembering that Christ came down from heaven, took on human flesh, lived a sinless life, gave Himself as the perfect sacrifice for my sin, endured all of God's wrath that I deserved so that I could be clothed in His righteousness...and adopted by God. The battle is won by remembering that the battle was won on the cross.
"O LORD... Convince me that I cannot be my own god, or make myself happy,
nor my own Christ to restore my joy,
not my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me...
Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;
show me that none of these things can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame, or uphold a departing spirit.
Then take me to the cross and leave me there."
The Valley of Vision, "Man A Nothing"
