Self-analysis is hard work! It’s tiring work! It’s endless work! But worse than all these things, it holds an
implicit danger. It can be futile work. Self-analysis can become so self-absorbing that it keeps us from turning outward to see what we really should be doing. It is dangerously interiorating. When we spend the store of our time on understanding ourselves we are usually letting a lot of other things go. It’s a kind of paralysis diabolicus! Satan likes us best when we are completely absorbed in trying to figure ourselves out, because at such moments all forward motion in our lives stop.
Those people who accomplish a great deal for God are people who never forget the atoning work of the blood of Jesus Christ. They are people who care less about idiosyncratic self, and more about the work, will and purpose of Jesus functioning in their new lives, which are in Christ.
The Hymnologist said, “What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus!” Paul said, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Jesus Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Phil. 3:7-8 NIV.
Great achievers are people who are tuned into Jesus ~ and through Him they have found their reason and purpose. They’ve been made new, from the old Adamic nature, to a new life in God through Christ. When you are born again, you rediscover God’s original intent for fellowship and relationship.
So, don’t get trapped in the never ending saga of self-analysis, simply be buried (through baptism) in Jesus name and become born again through the very Spirit and life of Jesus Christ!
Jesus said, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” 2 Cor. 5:17.
Jesus also said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born! 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:3-8 NIV
Clearly, Jesus was speaking of a new birth. He went on to say to His disciples in Acts 1:8: “8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” And so it was, on the morning of the Feast of Pentecost, the disciples were all in unity – they were in accord in one place. And “2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:2-4 KJV
It takes the empowerment of the Holy Spirit working in our lives to achieve the ultimate purposes of God for our lives. The world is not generally helped along by people who are driven to understand themselves but by people who want to be like Jesus – changing their world!
Dream big, go boldly, and may the power of God’s Holy Spirit work through you!
