Enjoy Inner Restoration, Healing and Transformation (Romans 12:2)
Illustration: In the 1987 AFC Championship football game between Cleveland and Denver, Ernest Bynar fumbled the ball just as he got ready to score a touchdown. That mistake cost the Cleveland Browns the championship, a trip to the Super Bowl and is what most people remember about Ernest Bynar. Even though Ernest Bynar had an otherwise stellar fourteen year career in the NFL and is ranked 16th on the all time rushing list, many angry Cleveland fans will not forget the "infamous fumble".
Every day we too have to refuse to be pressured to live by the standards of the world. The world, the flesh and the devil pressure us to focus on our fumbles instead of our new identity in Christ and His will for our life. When we live by external validations we are forced into self-destructive patterns of perfectionism, success at all cost thinking, and feelings of inferiority when we stumble.
Paul offers us a pattern for inner healing, restoration, and transformation when he wrote, "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and yo willknow how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is." (Romans 12:2 - New Living Translation)
The following are several blueprints that the world offers, its consequences versus the truth of God’s word that sets us free. Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31,32)
1. The world tells us we must perform perfectly in order to feel good about ourselves.
Consequences include:
a. Fearing failure since I might think that my performance determines my significance. This gnawing sense of inadequacy creates anxiety, fear and unwanted stress.
b. Perfectionism causes one to put pressure on ourselves and those around us that are unreasonable, demanding and often critical of others.
c. Driven by fear instead of by faith
d. Never really satisfied or at ease with our behavior
e. Intensity about succeeding at any cost that leads one to have a critical spirit.
f. Manipulation of others so we can get our way in order to have a sense of success.
g. Withdrawal when we are afraid of taking a risk
h. Jealousy of others who succeed or compete with us
i. Feelings of inferiority that makes us retreat from the mission that God wants us to engage in
j. Self-righteous attitudes that tend to make us conceited and smug
2. The world tells us that we must please people in order to gain acceptance, approval and belonging
Consequences include: An internal fear of rejection and an over-sensitivity to criticism. Trepidation that all people are basically personally attacking us and threatening our security.
a. Withdrawal to avoid any disapproval
b. Isolation from friends, family and other believers
c. Hesistancy to witness
d. Expecting too much of ourselves in order to please others
e. Putting up unrealistic expectation on people around us to conform to our standards of what is God’s will before we give them our approval
f. Depending on the conditional love of others.
3. The world’s disapproval merits their punishment, criticism and hateful actions
Consequences include:
a. Fear of punishment and taking correction so personally that we do everything to avoid it.
b. Attempts to be so tough on ourselves so we can be worthy of acceptance, promotions and success.
c. A dry spiritual life that makes us cold, legalistic and judgmental of others
d. Harshness on ourselves our family and others
e. Tendency to blame ourselves since we have not learned how to love ourselves as God loves.
f. A prideful attitude that blames ourselves and others because we have not taken personal responsibility to rest, nest and abide in the love of God.
4. The world tells us that we are beyond hope of transformation, improvement and usefulness
Consequences include:
a. Depression, discouragement and disillusionment that leads one to become lethargic and indifferent.
b. Dispirited thinking that leads to fatigue, stress and an unwillingness to try something new.
c. Hopelessness, inferiority and an over-sensitivity to people with new ideas
d. Self-destructive thoughts that are manifestations of guilt and shame.
e. Self-centered focus
f. Quick to blame others and ourselves when things do not go well
g. Failure to set goals or have expectations for improvement
h. Little zeal or energy or excitement
i. Spiritual and emotional death tendencies
Solutions include:
a. Refusing to be led by the world, the flesh or the devil’s standards but resting, abiding and obeying God’s will.
b. Reinforcing the fact that we are in Christ as this new identity puts us above the standards of the world’s approval criteria. Because we are justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we also have access to the Spirit’s power, purpose and perspective. Allowing the Spirit of God and the truth of God’s word to enable us, energize our mind, attitudes and actions elevates us above the world’s pressures.
c. We can strive for excellence instead of perfection not by the spirit of fear but by the Spirit of power, love and a disciplined mind.
d. We are led more and more by faith and not by sight
e. There is less intensity to succeed and score a touchdown every time we are given the ball.
f. We have a greater desire to see others succeed as that is an important way to see the Lord glorified and the body of Christ give witness to the fact that greater is He who is in us that He who is in the world. (I John 4:4)
g. We do not have to perform to please people but can our focus is on pleasing the Lord, fearing Him and keeping His commands out of love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (I Tim 1:5)
h. We already know that we will never have a 100% success in the eyes of people so we are relieved from that pressure.
i. We do not have to perform to gain the acceptance of people because we are no longer in competition with them.
j. We base our security on our identity in Christ not in our performance, looks or financial standing.
k. We can praise God that He separates who we are from what we do.
l. We can rejoice in the fact that because the Lord Jesus has reconciled us to God, following our saving faith declaration, we are totally accepted, saved and approved by God and no no longer have to fear rejection. We can say like Paul, "Who dare accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? NO! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us!" (Rom 8:33,34)
m. We do not need the approval of others in order to feel good or significant about ourselves.
Paul wrote, "Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? Even the scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ Jesus who loved us." (Rom. 8:35-37)
m. The cross of Christ changes our identity from an enemy of God to His eternal friend.
n. I can learn to be willing to risk change, rejection and hardship when I know the Lord is constantly fighting the battles for me. He is forever assuring me that He will always help me carry the ball across the goal line from His perspective.
o. The sacrifice of Christ on Calvary changes our focus and motivation from proving myself to pleasing Him. I can teach, live and serve without the fear of criticism or things coming unravelled because the Lord brings things to pass and makes me adequate for every situation with His capabilities.
p. We can value ourselves and others because of God’s unconditional love. This endues one with a supernatural sense of His confidence, assurance and relaxation.
q. Based on Christ’s propitiation we no longer have to offer sacrifices for our sin. I do not have to fear punishment since His perfect love casts out fear. I can love because He first loved me. I can forgive because He forgives me. I can serve with His power because He served me and is interceding me for with groanings and travailings to deep for words.
r. We can demonstrate His love and kindness toward others as I can put off anger, jealousy, wrath and a critical spirit and replace it with kindness, gentleness and a heart of compassion even as God in Christ has shown it to me.
s. I can thank God that He longer punishes His children but merely chastens them for our good. This is a remarkable insight as it assures me He is constantly seeking my good instead of putting me down and humilition.
t. Thanks to the deep, broad, long and high love of Jesus I can be a conduit of of His love to myself and to others. His love transforms me into a person who lives graciously, humbly and caringly instead of one who operates only out of duty.
u. Thanks to the regeneration that we have in Christ I can live out my new identity in Christ since old things are past away and new things have come. (2 Cor 5:17) I can forget the things that are behind and reach forward to what lies ahead with positive expectations.
Illustrations: I truly believe it was an inward overflow of His identity in Christ and His realization of the love of God in HIs heart William Carey, the father of modern missions said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God."
v. When we turn to God He turns our sorrow into joyfulness. He chases the discouragement away and fills our heart with hope, encouragement and positive solutions for every negative situation.
w. We have a healthy way of thinking, believing, perceiving and relating to people as a result of our realization of our new identity in Christ.
x. We are continually thankful, rejoicing and praising God for the constant infusion of His greater love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. This gives us an heightened level of expectations of what the Lord will do in and through us on a moment by moment basis.
y. God gives us an attitude of gratitude, hope and optimism despite what we might be feeling or experiencing or what others might say about us.
z. We can be buoyant because of our new outlook, grace and the Spirit’s empowering us to express our eternal life to those who are under the weight of the world’s standards, sin and suffering.
(Credit for much of the above ideas goes to Sol Pinchon’s sermon in Trinity College of Florida Chapel in November, 2004)
Illustration: Metamorphisis is the Greek word for "transformed" used by the apostle Paul. Just as the worm -caterpillar changes form into a beautiful butterfly, so the Spirit of God and the word of God gradually transforms us into the image of Christ. This sanctification is done through trust, obedience and right thinking. People who are ascending to these higher levels of Christlikeness are more fruitful in their personal lives, inter-personal relationships and activities. Failure to be transformed by the renewing of our minds results in a retrogressive self-destructive pattern that worldly search for self-gratification that ends in misery, chastening and suffering, not to mention eternal regret.
In this way we can always take the ball across the line to score a touchdown even though the world may not recognize it or applaud our progress. Lord help us to avoid the Ernest Bynar syndrome.
