Distorted Views
This morning following one of the devotionals that I am reading, it suggested listening to a specific related song. Once on YouTube, listening to songs, I often continue on in a time of worship. Song after song for a time. This morning I saw Selah in the list of upcoming songs, with ‘I look to You.’ It has been a while since I heard the song and decided to click on it.
Defining Moments
It was a performance video in which Amy, the lady of the group, shares part of her personal story. It is a painful story of one boy who said that she was too fat to be a cheerleader, and she recalls the boy’s face, what he was wearing and most of all how it made her feel. She recounts carrying that moment with her in pain and most specifically correlating her beauty with her weight. And as she told this story, she came to a moment in which she told the Lord that she couldn’t do it on her own anymore, she couldn’t fight the weight and be healthy and all that anymore. She surrendered.
It is such a painful trap that we define ourselves by what others say or think. We hear others make comments about us, unflattering comments, and begin to let that define us. Sometimes we have only seen a facial expression or picked up on a tension that someone carries; that translates in our mind to a ‘she doesn’t like me’ or ‘he thinks I’m stupid.’ The view that others have of us can influence, sometimes significantly, what how we see ourselves. These can be defining moments. They don’t have to be forever moments.
Surrender is not lonely
Just as Amy says in her testimony before the song, we too can hand it over to God, relinquishing the negativity and the struggle with that image in our heads. I appreciate that Amy also said that there are people around her, supporting her to be healthy and have a healthy image of herself. This is not a lone walk that we take. God not only accompanies us but also puts people in our lives to walk with us and hold us up. Joshua and the Israelites fought the Amalekites, and ‘As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset,’ (Exodus 17:11-12). The Israelites won because Moses lifted his hands to the throne of God for the entire duration of the battle. But Moses had help to keep his hands lifted. Amy had a dietician and trainer as well as family to help her face this distortion. We are not alone; the Lord sends companions and walks with us himself.
Choosing the distinguishing mark of Christ in our lives means that He is ready to change our perspective, he is ready to altar the battle lines and fight with us, the conquerors. The truth of who we are and who He sees alters the view we have of ourselves; it becomes a healthy view, neither puffed up nor lowly. He transforms us through renewing our minds. Romans 12:2 says, ‘do not conform to the pattern of this world’, another affirmation that the thoughts and words of others which we conform to and let conform our minds must be thrown off. This is a command: we must stop those thoughts. When they come, we must recognize them, and He will help us if we only ask. The verse goes on to say how: 1) be transformed by the renewing of your mind, 2) then test and approve what God’s will is.
Renewing of the mind
By submersing ourselves in the Word of the Lord, we renew or alter our thought patterns. When we catch ourselves thinking ‘They think xxx of me’ (They hate me; They think I’m stupid; They will think I’m not good enough), then we have to replace those thoughts with His word. We have to declare His truth over our lives and transform our minds through His words. We have to redefine who we are in Christ, putting on the new and setting aside the old. Take a moment to list out the truths of God about you, or simply do a search online ‘identity in Christ’ and lists will appear that affirm your identity as a beloved child of God. These verses and these truths must become our response to the ugly thoughts in our minds.
With renewed minds, we will then be in a position to test and approve the will of God. The distortions that we have of ourselves and the distortions that others have projected have also distorted how we see our Lord and how we view his expectations upon us. But once we have renewed our mind, our understanding of who we are and what we are capable of in Him, we will affirm His good, gracious, perfect will. But first, we must allow Him to clear out the distortions of the mind, embracing His vision of who we are and destroying the shadows that others see of us.
Check out the testimony and song here. The whole thing is under eight minutes and a great arrangement of the song.
