It's Not About You!

 In this life it's really not about you. And it being about you is usually the source of pain and exacerbation in your life. So that's the first thing God helps us with, that we aren't the solution and we aren't the focus either. Let's be honest. If it was about us, we would be spoiled brats, willful, disobedient. But then again, maybe we are, and maybe that explains why that hasn't been working.

 Like Peter, Jesus gets us to look at Him and consider Him. When we're "self focused" or "self conscious", we are usually "self absorbed" and "self orbiting", and i don't know if you've noticed, but that always leads to more disaster and less and less satisfaction. That explains a lot. So let me propose that yes we have needs and yes we have things in our lives that need to be changed or healed or satisfied. But we're not the solution and we don't even know where to start. We usually only know what we imagine is expected of us etc... And all too often we go down that rabbit hole chasing what can't be caught and continue trying to change ourselves (or others) from the outside in. And that isn't our place or even our job.

 We can change our behavior a little which changes our habits a little, but we can't touch the core, we can't even reach it. Only God can touch that part. So it would seem that only He can break it down or mend it or modify it or grow it into maturity. That said, it would indicate that no man becomes a man on the inside without Jesus Personally taking that man into manhood and without that man letting Him. Same with a woman.

 A really great earthly father, even if there could be a perfect one, he can teach and model for his son to do manly things..., to have manly behavior, to act like a man..., but the father can't make the son into a truly mature man, even if the son wants to go there with all his heart. Only Jesus can take that man the rest of the way. True manhood is flowing from a deeper place, from the inside out from Jesus by The Holy Spirit. We're confused if we think manhood comes in a different way or that we could make ourselves men or grow or take another male into manhood. By definition, it has to be Jesus, He IS The Only True Man and The Origin of Manhood.

 Every problem or the exacerbation of every problem we've ever had is more of us and less of God, and the fix or the improvement of every problem or relationship is more of Jesus and less of us. That is less of our flesh or old man so to speak and more of the New Man overtaking the old. So in a sense..., we’re being set free from being all about us and all up to us. Jesus knows what He’s doing. He’s proved that and is proving that more and more with All of us.

 So even if the message were 99%  about God's part and 1% our part, we as sheep will naturally run away with the 1% thinking that we somehow have gotten the message and now it's off to the doing of what we've heard. It doesn't really work that way. And the reason it hasn't worked up to this point, is because the focus and the solution has been on you or on me, whereas you and i have never fixed anything or anyone. We've just been included in what God has already done or was already doing when we let Him in to do that work and wait for and depend on Him to complete it. Is He not the finisher of our faith and The Author as well? Otherwise if we were able to change the thing, then that would be our testimony. But lets consider Paul's testimony..., Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, and Grace that comes from God (The Father) Through Jesus Christ (God The Son) by The Holy Spirit (God The Holy Spirit), All Three In One Have Life in Themselves with no beginning and no end. But we will talk more of that later as well as more of Paul's testimony.