What are your ruling Influences?

What are your ruling Influences?

If you're normal you have several. But we all tend to have one “go to”. One that dominates our being.

Most Christians like to think it is God, or maybe the Holy Spirit. And it is for some, or sometimes. But not for all of us. A form of self is the most common enthroned ruler of our lives. Self, not as in a self-rule, but in some aspect of our lives that is not under control, not under self-control.

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• ·        Fear of what others might think or say.
• ·        Rejection.
• ·        Anger and the feelings of power it generates.
• ·        Money or a sense of security or power.
• ·        Being respected or honor.
• ·        Feeling in control.

These are some of the kinds of things that rule our lives. They blind us to other options. They rule over our emotions. They determine what we call truth or right or good or just. Influences bias our lives. They make us see the world in a way they determine and then argue to our selves and others that that is the way the world is. It’s like our perspective is omniscient.

I’m reading through Luke 9:7-9 and wonder how am I like Herod? I’ve spent time pondering if I am like Peter or David or Paul. Truthfully, I haven’t spent much time wondering if I am like Herod, or Caesar, or Judas or a Pharisee. Seems I like thinking about the good or potential in me and not the possibility of evil or hate. Maybe it’s not me. Maybe I’m being influenced by my culture of “everyone is good”, no great, special and worthy of celebration. Honestly most of the time I’m not. But don’t tell the cultural police. And don’t tell anyone who will condemn me for being self-condemning. Nothing is so harsh as being judged by those who proclaim non-judgment.

OK, so maybe thinking about my evil has me writing from a dark place right now. That is the point. I can do that. I can write, read, think and influence myself and others from the dark place. Owning that help me be truthful and avoid false hope. False hope is like self-medicating. It is using my self to evaluate myself. At best it leads to comparison for evaluation. And when was the last time comparison helped someone become healthy? It’s great for determining hierarchy or for making the team. Comparison helps us find our place, to know our limits. But it has little ability to make us healthy?

Knowing why you do what you do can help us be healthy. Knowing that my God-given personality and passions are crying out for validation helps me understand how my heart affects my head. My vision of the world is important in the balance of things, in a community, in fellowship, and in leadership. Knowing that I am a part, not the whole is valuable too. But when I think that what I think is all the truth there is, I am in the dark.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

So, are you a person who is mostly influenced by getting things done? Are you the person that wants to do things, but they must be done right? Maybe your main influence is having influence, being valued? Or maybe life is good if everyone loves you if you feel loved, respected or connected?  

Even though we are made by God for God, we can live out of our created being, out of our personality, passions, and desires more than out of the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is hard to be that honest. It is hard to wait on God. Letting the Spirit of God lead and not simply bless, and help is tough. Most of the time I want the Spirit of God to lead. Sometimes I don’t. I don’t trust the Spirit to make me happy, to make me feel valuable, to give me what I want.

There seems to be an epidemic today making God into the kind of being that makes us happy and gives us what we want. Rather than seeing the Spirit making us into what God wants, we have our spirit making God into what we want. And why shouldn’t we? Doesn’t he want to give us the desires of our heart? Doesn’t He want to meet all our needs? Doesn’t He want to exalt us and sit us with Him in heavenly places? Doesn’t God want us to use His love for us as a tool to get what we want, what we deserve?

It’s hard to see God rightly and then look at yourself and see anything of value. Our value comes, not in our being, but in His love for us. We are a treasure because He treasures us. I know many people will say otherwise, but what is man that God is mindful of him? It’s not the whole picture, but it is worth pounding

the dark side, the worthlessness of mankind so that the love of God for us is magnified, not justified.