Pessimistic, Optimistic Or Realistic? Living With An Authentic Spirit Series

Pessimistic, Optimistic or Realistic? Living with an Authentic Spirit

Which of these words would you use to describe yourself?

Pessimist / Optimist / Realist

Which would you use to describe yourself?

The pessimist says the glass is half empty.

The optimist says the glass is half full.

The realist knows there is water in the glass.

Who are you?

The pessimist complains about the rain.

The optimist expects it to dry up later change.

The realist knows to takes an umbrella in case.

Who are you?

The pessimist says God won’t answer my prayer.

The optimist says God may answer my prayer.

The realist knows God always answers prayer according to His will.

Who are you?

Ok so you know who you think you are.

Would others agree?

Are you Authentic?

Is there unquestionable evidence that you are who you say you are?

Or is the real you hidden behind a false attitude?

Is the real you hidden behind a mask?

Is the real you hidden so deep that you don’t even remember when you last saw him or her?

Are you Authentic?

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Tonight is Encouragement Night and God has laid a message in my heart that I believe will speak to all of us, whoever we are.

It’s a message for the pessimist – for those who look at the worst – and expect the future to be no better.

It’s a message for the optimist who expects things to get better - who expects the future to be brighter.

It’s a message for realists – people who are willing to adjust their thinking about life and about God.

And it is a message for those of us who want to be Authentic.

Authentic People who do not want to hide behind false labels, attitudes or masks.

People who are Authentic with God and Authentic with each other.

How well do you know yourself?

Do you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the real you to your family?

Do you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the real you to your friends?

Do you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the real you to your colleagues?

Do you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the real you to you?

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God knows us better than we know ourselves.

And if each of us could know God better than we do, it would help us more than we can imagine.

Knowing God better, having a deeper personal relationship with Him, removes fear and gives us hope.

When we know God, when we are in an authentic relationship with Him, we have authentic hope, we have authentic peace, we have authentic joy, we have authentic faith!

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What is God really like?

Even amongst Christians there seems to be some confusion about what God is really like - about who He really is.

Some people focus on His justice.

Some focus on His love.

Others say that the God of the Bible and the gods of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are basically the same.

When we let God speak for Himself - we discover who the Authentic God really is!

In the book of Isaiah, the Authentic God introduces Himself with the words:

“I am the Lord and there is no other.”

We all need to know God better,

J. I. Packer wrote, “Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold as it were with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life.”

We all need to build our relationship with Him,

We all need to draw closer to Him in love.

We need to be in an authentic relationship with the authentic God.

We all need to learn how to trust Him more.

We need to learn to be thirsty for God.

Lets look at a passage from Isaiah, that speaks of thirsting for God and what that brings ......

Isaiah 44:3-44:8 (NLT)

3 For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields.

And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.

4 They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.

5 Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the Lord.’

Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’

Some will write the Lord’s name on their hands and will take the name of Israel as their own.”

6 This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:

“I am the First and the Last;

there is no other God.

7 Who is like me? Let him step forward and prove to you his power.

Let him do as I have done since ancient times

when I established a people and explained its future.