We Must Embrace the Inconceivable – Part 3

01 Aug We Must Embrace the Inconceivable – Part 3

Blog Series

Moving from Checkers to Chess

Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective

In Part 1 of embracing the inconceivable we saw that we must: Accept our redeemed inner man as holy and righteous.

In Part 2 we saw that we must: Accept our inherent and infinite worth as a child of God.

We also saw in Part 2 last week that it is not smart to abuse God’s grace. He loves us too much to allow us to excuse our behavior by saying that since our inner man is holy and righteous we can toy with sin in the outer man. We looked at the negative consequences of attempting to do so. And this week we’ll see that the “pleasures of sin” could never make us truly happy anyway.

This week we unpack Part 3 of Embracing the Inconceivable:
We must pursue God as our only source of ultimate happiness.

We were created by God, for God and we will only find our true satisfaction and happiness in God.

Just as you cannot make a dog fully happy by treating it like a duck, so a child of God cannot be made happy by the world. It is not possible, and until a believer comes to grips with that and adjusts accordingly, he/she will be continuously frustrated with his/her Christian experience.

So, let’s unpack how God created us, and how He intends to satisfy us:

1. God created us with three great needs, to draw us to Himself because He is the only one who can fulfill these great needs.
   1. Love: We long to be loved unconditionally.
   2. Significance: We long to belong to a group and be accepted and valued by them.
   3. Competence: We long to be able to do something important that is recognized as valuable.
2. Because of the Fall, we naturally feel deficient in these three areas.
   1. Inferior: Instead of feeling loved, we feel inferior and not lovable.
   2. Insignificant: Instead of feeling significant, we feel unworthy and insignificant.
   3. Incompetent: Instead of feeling competent to do something important, we feel incompetent.
3. We a result of the Fall, we feel that we have to try to earn our worth in these areas.
   1. Looks: We strive to look attractive/appealing to the group/people we aspire to appeal to, thinking that that will make us feel loved.
   2. Possessions: We strive to possess the things valued by the group we aspire to belong to, thinking that that will make us feel significant.
   3. Accomplishments: We strive to do/accomplish things that are valued by the group we aspire to appeal to, thinking that that will make us feel competent.
4. Because of the Fall and our sin, as well as the sin of those we are trying to appeal to, our strategies are never successful. We often feel as though we cannot measure up.
   1. Love: Because of our imperfect ability to make ourselves as appealing as we hope, or because of others’ failure at loving us adequately as a result, we often wrestle with feeling unloved anyway.
   2. Significance: Because of our imperfect ability to accumulate all we think we need to be fully significant, or because of others’ failure to value us adequately, we often wrestle with feeling insignificant anyway.
   3. Competence: Because of our imperfect ability to accomplish all we feel we need to accomplish to be truly competent, or because of others’ failure to appreciate us adequately, we often wrestle with feeling incompetent anyway.
5. Because we are complete in Christ, God has already conferred on us everything we need to feel our worth in each of these areas. As we understand and embrace our completeness in Christ, we can be freed from trying to earn our worth. Because of our completeness in Christ…
   1. We are perfectly loved. God loves us as an earthly father loves his children, but infinitely and perfectly. 1 John 3:1 says, “See how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God…”
   2. We completely belong. God has adopted us into His family and we are now his eternal children. Galatians 4:4-7 says, “God sent His Son…that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
   3. We are fully competent. God has given each one a spiritual gift, and we can do whatever He asks of us. He does not ask us to be “successful.” He only asks us to be faithful. 1 Peter 4: 10 says, “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”  (NLT)

Conclusion

If we look to God to confer on us our worth, we can see that we do not have to do anything to earn our worth, but we have infinite and inherent worth because we are created in His image, and because He love us perfectly, has accepted us as belonging to His family, and views us competent since He has gifted us to do whatever He asks of us. 

We no longer have to chase the “carrot of worth” tied to the stick of the world. 

We will never feel complete worth if we look to the world. But if we look to God, we can rest in the worth that He has already conferred on us.

We must pursue God as our only source of ultimate happiness. We were created by God, for God and we will only find our true satisfaction and happiness in God.

Next week we’ll begin our look at Step 3 of unleashing the power of an eternal perspective: We Must Choose the Undesirable. I look forward to seeing you then.

Get a Moving from Checkers to Chess At-a-Glance-Overview: Click Here

As we have been studying these concepts for quite some time (including in some prior blog series), and I am excited to now be connecting all the “moving parts” from those posts and combining them into a “spiritual game plan” in this “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective” series.

For an overview of the game plan, so you can see at a glance where we begin and where we’re headed, I’ve created an overview/outline you can download for free: Click Here

For the full discussion of each of the steps, begin with the first post in this series, Moving from Checkers to Chess, and then continue with the following posts thereafter.

In case you’re new here, below are two resources I’ve created for additional help in your Christian discipleship journey:

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