Focus by Margie Fleurant

Author:Margie Fleurant [Margie, Fleurant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7684-0898-0
Publisher: Destiny Image, Inc.

Chapter 8

SELF-ABSORPTION

Embracing God’s call is never easy, but this is where the pursuit of a God-centered life begins, and where the shame of a self-centered life is exposed.

—COLIN S. SMITH

Growing up with five brothers, I was often teased. It was the Italian way of showing affection, but because of my melancholy and sensitive temperament, their teasing hurt me. I became really quiet and withdrawn, like a shrinking violet. Then, at the age of nineteen, I encountered God and He called me into ministry. To the shrinking-violet me, this was a terrifying prospect. But God told me, “I don’t want you to look at your inadequacies. I want you to look to Me. I am the author and the finisher of your faith, and I will complete what I have begun in you.” He was addressing my tendency toward self-absorption, toward continually looking at myself and my own weaknesses instead of looking to His strength. Thankfully, during my years at Rhema Bible Training College, I was able to learn to rely on God’s adequacy instead of focusing on my own lack. Looking back, I realize how important that was. Had I focused on my own inadequacies, I never would have made it into the pulpit ministry God planned for me.

Apart from Christ, we all have the tendency to look to our own strength and assess it as either adequate or inadequate. Both are pitfalls for the Christian, because God calls us to do greater things than we could ever accomplish on our own. He calls us above and beyond ourselves in ways that require—if we want to be successful—dependence on His strength and power within us.

FOCUSING ON OUR WEAKNESS

I have always been more prone to focusing on my weakness in the face of a challenge. Many Christians see this attitude as a sort of humility because it recognizes human inability, but it is a false humility. Any focus on self, whether in a positive or negative light, is actually a form of pride. It makes the self bigger than God. It makes our inadequacies more potent than His strength and, as a result, chokes our faith.

Moses, in his early years, provides us with a textbook example of self-absorption. He was so focused on his own inadequacy that when God called to him from a burning bush, Moses nearly refused the call. In the face of such incredible supernatural power, he actually told God the mission would fail because of his own weaknesses. The problem is evident in Moses’ objections: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? …What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” (Exod. 3:11, 4:1). Over and over, Moses says “I” and “me” without any reference to God’s power. All he could see was himself. God, of course, was not at all worried about Moses’ weaknesses, because He knew the mission wasn’t dependent on Moses.

As God continued to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.