Welcome, there is someone I would like for you to meet. They have the potential of being the most important person you will ever know.
Actually, you have already met this person. Although you have been around them a long time, you hardly know this person. Who are they? They are “YOU.”
At this point, we need to stop and find out who we are as Christian “in Christ Jesus.” Not who we are in a Glamour Magazine article or in Man’s Latest Fashion publication.
In Ephesians 2:10 we read, “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk with Him.”
The question is, how do we become this person “in Christ Jesus?”
To discover ourselves in Christ Jesus we need to find our description in His word. First of all, even before we look in his word you have to give up letting everyone else define you: your children, your grandchildren, advertisement, the media, your church, your denomination, your friends, even your husband or wife.
God’s word needs to become our mirror into this understanding. Yet, many of us look into our own dusty mirrors and ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…. Where did I go?”
Maybe you feel like I do at times. This is what I see when I look in my mirror… a use-to-be-er. I use to be schoolteacher, a weekly column writer, a mother of small children a daughter, a granddaughter, a snow skier, and a size 8. I use to be free for veracious veins, wrinkles, and the discomfort in my heels, knees and back. Count me in. I’m a use-to-be-er!
Maybe you too have looked in the mirror and at one time saw someone you recognized. We may not have been the fairest in the land, but we were God’s workmanship. Then we gave little pieces of our self away so now we don’t know what has become of the person “in Christ Jesus” whom God created us to be.
One word best describing this person in all our mirrors is “RESPONSIBLE”. You see, we may have lost ourselves and had to ask “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall where did I go?” because we are so ready to take responsiblilty for everything and everybody.
On one hand, we think we will be safe if we just put everything in order, everything in place, and keep it that way. Our energy is spent trying to be rigid about everything. Rigid isn’t necessarily stable; it is just brittle and easily broken. This leaves us being quick, snappy and efficient about doing one thing after another. We end up with no time to dream or swing; no time for a moment with God or with ourselves.
Also, as Christian, we clothe ourselves in false quilt. If our children are not doing well…got to be our fault. If our husband or wife feels down…must be something we did. If our church is not a mega church…we failed. This attitude is not good, for we take on the quilt of everything around us, thus making ourselves the center of everything.
“In Christ” we can replace this self-conscienceness with Christ-conscienceness that will allow us to choose the clothing to fit our God-given personality and responsibility. Clothing that feels good on me and is pleasing to God. We don’t have to wear anyone’s hand me downs. Neither will we cut our divine conscience to fit this year’s fashions. We have divine clothing, as a believer in Christ Jesus, designed especially for us.
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