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How Do You See the Person in the Mirror?

Created on Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Last two days, I re-read some of the text I underlined from the book "The Victory of Surrender" by Gordon Ferguson. It is under chapter 10: Are You Surrender? The point is "How Do You See the Person in the Mirror?"

I think this point apply to all our us especially those who do/serve a lot in church and I think the performance-based point mentioned here shouldn't be applied in our career. You see there is a Performance Management System (PMS) in our company at least once a year. Hehe ...

Okay, here are some text I underlined from this point (I reduced some text to make it more concise and added bold for my own focus):

    Our first question concerns your self-esteem. We keep trying to "prove" our worth to ourselves with accomplishments. But success in performance only alleviates our feelings of inadequancy temporarily, and soon we are back on the treadmill of trying to prove ourselves.

    Our view of other people also has great impact on our self-esteem. If we are trying to have our need for significance and security met by people rather than by God, some tough times await us. We become overly concerned about what people think about us. But men or women cannot give us ultimate security and significance - only God can. A person who is secure in his relationship with God (through surrender) can be a people server rather than a people pleaser or a people impresser.

    Our security with God must be based on his acceptance and not our performance.

    How we feel about ourselves is tied directly to how we think God feels about us. Unless we are able to throw off our "prove-it" "earn-it" or "measure-up" mentalities with people and with God, we will remain on a performance treadmill. Our feeling about ourselves must be based on the understanding expressed by the little boy who said, "God made me, and God don't make no junk." While his grammar may have been lacking, his theology was right on target. Our value comes from the fact that we are created in God's image, and the price paid by the death of his beloved Son absolutely establishes our worth. Accept his view of you and be content, or reject it and be miserable. The person in the mirror will never look good to you until you see your value biblically, but that view will never register in your heart until you are surrendered to Jesus' lordship.