There's an old Saturday Night Live Skit (SNL) where the character Stuart Smalley, played by Al Franken, would talk to himself in the mirror and say, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me." Now to be honest, I've never actually watched a full episode of SNL, but I've seen plenty of snippets on YouTube of some of their funniest bits, and this is one that recently started popping back up in my mind. I guess it's because lately it seems like several people in my sphere of life have been talking a lot about, what I will term, the power of positive thinking....Basically telling themselves if they believe something hard enough, it will actually be true...and I can't help but picture Stuart sitting in front of the mirror, trying to self-motivate himself, before stepping out into the big bad world!
Now don't get me wrong, I do not think that all self-talk is silly. In fact I have gotten through some really hard time in my life by reminding myself of the truths I know about God and who I am in Him. But it's truly hard for me to believe that just because I say, "I am healed in Jesus' name", that it means that I will no longer have cancer or depression or any thing else for that matter (or if I claim I have something, that I automatically will). I'm not saying that God can't heal you by the power of His name. I'm not saying that we shouldn't confess things like "By His stripes we are healed". I'm just saying, that for me, thinking that just because I claim something...just because I say it out loud...that it automatically makes that thing happen, is a little hard for me to swallow.
And maybe I feel this way because 6 years ago we lost my brother-in-law to cancer. People who tell me, "You just have to believe and not doubt and God will do whatever you confess to be true", feel like they are basically saying, "if you...your sister, your family, your friends.... had just believed more fully, your brother and law wouldn't have died"! I don't believe that's true for one second! Do I believe God could have healed by brother-in-law? Yes I do! God chose to heal Him in heaven instead of on earth, but I still have no doubts God could have done it the other way around! Saying that if we had just claimed the healing power of God and truly believed it would happen here on earth, then things would have turned out differently, to me is basically saying that we in a sense could have been like God...and isn't that one of the lies the devil used to convince Eve to commit the first ever sin ("If you eat this fruit, you will be like God!"). To think that we could be like God, or even determine what He will do, turns God into something like a genie in a bottle that if we rub the right way will give us everything we want! I don't buy it!
Maybe I am wrong, I don't claim to have the market on truth and I certainly still have a lot of growing to do, but I think rather than trying to live our lives out of some place that says, if I just think correctly my life will be wonderful, we should rather focus on who God is and what He can do....and instead of trying to build ourselves up or rely on our own abilities, we should turn to God and trust Him! If God is really all He says He is, then He knows our weakness, and He also knows exactly what we need (even more than we really know what we need) and He's big enough to take care of us. So wouldn't He be the perfect person to trust?! I think it's when we actually put our trust in Him, allowing God to be God...the all powerful, omnipotent one... instead of trying to make ourselves the one whose in control by trying to have enough faith or claiming what should be, then it doesn't matter what happens in our lives, we will be content and find the true, abundance of the kingdom that the Bible speaks of. I don't think the Christian faith has ever been about how good we are, how much faith we have, or how "put together" we can make things. Instead it's always been about a perfect God who came and did for us, what we could never do for ourselves. Why are we trying to change things now?!?!
No comments:
Post a Comment