Walk

330. Be Real

You will never be happy until you are like your father.

Jesus made it clear that if God was not your Father, then the devil was your father (John 8:44).

The devil’s children are not happy if they are acting like God, and God’s children are not happy if they are acting like the devil.

Why was the apostle Paul unhappy? Paul, the great apostle of all times, really gets honest in Romans chapter 7. He does not claim to be some great saint, some holy man of God, but he says, “the things that I don’t want to do I find myself doing, and the things that I want to do, I cannot seem to do them. Oh pitiful man that I am, who shall free me from this body of death” (Romans 7:15-24). Paul was not happy about not being like his Father God.

What Paul was talking about in the “body of death” was the Roman custom of strapping a dead corpse to the convicted murderer as a slow way of executing the guilty man. Eventually, the body of death strapped to his back would eat away at him and kill him. This is the way Paul felt spiritually. He felt like he was dying a slow death in trying to do what was right, but he could not find the will or energy to do it. Instead he found himself doing the things that did not please God.

What did Paul do about it? He took off his mask!

Almost everyone wears a mask to cover the real man.

Often behind a smile lies defeat, discouragement and despair. We live in a pretend world. People look at their smiles in the mirror and go out to live with other masked people.

We find people who hurt like we hurt and we form gangs or groups. It seems like no one understands our problems and us. We find no one with problems like ours so we cover the lines of guilt and worry, fix up our smile and go on pretending. From childhood we are taught to be unreal, to look as if we are happy when we are not, to laugh when we feel like crying, to act as if nothing has happened when we hurt, to cover our tears and go on. Our parents tell us to act like an adult; the trouble is we are not adults yet.

When Jesus came He wore no mask. People came to Him pretending, but found they could not fool Him. He looked into their souls, showing them without saying that He understood why they wore their mask. Gently, He helped them to take it off, and the man behind it saw light as he faced the world honestly for the first time.

When Paul saw himself as God saw him he said, “I am chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

God wants to show you what you really are.

It may take God a long time, but He keeps working. He can’t start until you know the truth about yourself. We need to know that we are so far away from God’s original plan. We don’t need to rob banks and deal drugs to be sinners. We need to see the original beautiful plan that God has for us. We need to know that He can get us there because He loves us and has the power to do it. And then we need to be desperate for change.

Why would I want to change? You will never be happy until you are like your Father. He is unselfish, a giver, a lover of other people, merciful, kind, gentle, yet a powerful warrior against His enemy the devil.

You were created to be a love creature – to be unselfish, thinking of the good of other people while God takes care of you. We switched that around. Instead, we often think of only ourselves and we use other people to fill our needs. When we have this attitude, God cannot take care of us.

We will never be happy until God lives His love life through us. Are you ready to tear off some of your mask?

Be honest with God about some of these things you may see in your life:

1. Crowd fear. Nobody likes me or wants me.

2. Concern for looks. I hate the way I look, my hairstyle, clothes, face, etc.

3. Craze for spiritually. Nobody really understands me and God.

4. Critical spirit. Nothing I seem to do turns out right.

5. Envy, jealousy.

6. Gossip, backbiting.

7. Frustration.

8. Need to be noticed.

9. Need to perform perfectly.

10. Secret sins against your body or mind. Moral sins.

11. Bitterness. Blaming God or your parents for your lousy life.

Notice that all the above center around selfishness. These are some “common” things, but the opposite of common is HOLY. HOLY is the description of God’s character. We need to be glad that God is not like some of these things listed above.

So what do I do? Be honest and desire the change. God will do the work.

My job is to:

RECOGNIZE. Confess and be honest with all things that do not line up with God’s blueprint for me.

RETHINK. Stop running from the voice of God.

REPENT. Get it fixed in your mind that you will live like Paul in Romans 7. No matter how many times you fail, keep on with God and He will do the work.

RENOUNCE. Yield any denied right to God. Whatever you have held back from God must be given to Him: your right to be pretty, popular, your right to be wealthy or famous.

REPLAN. Be prepared to make some changes.

RECEIVE the Lord Jesus by faith. That means to make HIM BOSS!

EXCHANGE your reputation for Christ’s. You must be willing to be seen by the world as they saw Jesus. Misunderstood, maligned and even murdered. You should come to the place in your heart where WHATEVER GOD WANTS FOR ME IS WHAT I WANT.

THANK HIM for the way He made you. Be thankful that He loves you just like you are and that He prefers for you to be real and honest. He will really be a BEST FRIEND when you pour out your heart to Him.

When we are real with God, we untie His hands.

2 Corinthians 3:16-20 (Amplified Bible) says, “But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continue to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”

Paul asked the desperate question and gave us the right answer. Romans 7:24-25 says, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – (He will) through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 8:3 (Amplified Bible) says, “For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice].”

Jesus can take your sin and give you His perfect life only if you stop hiding your sin. He wants it, but if we hide it we keep it.

He becomes heartbroken over our hardness to accept His free gift.

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