The centre of it all #2
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Rom 8:1
This verse of Scripture speaks about the freedom we have when Christ is at the centre of our lives. But there is another element of 'condemnation' that we are also freed from; an overly self-critical spirit.
Now, it is OK to notice when you can do something better but if this ends up being so critical that it prevents/disables you from trying again this is ultimately damaging. When this happens condemnation quickly becomes the centre of our lives again elbowing Christ out of the way (not that we loose our salvation, but our peace begins to drift).
Ruth and I recently bought a [children's] book called 'The Dot'. It is about this little girl who couldn't do art and so hated art class. The teacher tried to encourage her by suggesting that she simply puts a mark on the page and sees where it leads. Out of frustration the girl picks up a pens and slams it down on the page creating a dot. The teacher looks at it for a while and then asks her to sign it.
The next week the girl was shocked to see her dot in a gold frame above the teacher's desk. "I can do a better dot than that!" She said to herself still frustrated with being in the art class. She opened up her paints and began doing loads of dot pictures in various colours and sizes. In the end she had masses of dot pictures to display at the end of term and everyone was very impressed with them.
She noticed one young boy. He told her that he thought she was a great artist but he couldn't even draw a straight line with a ruler! She got him to show her. The girl looked at the squiggly line and then asked the boy to sign it...
When condemnation is at our centre it limits us; Christ, however, liberates us! We are no longer who we were, with Jesus we start to become who we could be.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Cor 5:17
This verse of Scripture speaks about the freedom we have when Christ is at the centre of our lives. But there is another element of 'condemnation' that we are also freed from; an overly self-critical spirit.
Now, it is OK to notice when you can do something better but if this ends up being so critical that it prevents/disables you from trying again this is ultimately damaging. When this happens condemnation quickly becomes the centre of our lives again elbowing Christ out of the way (not that we loose our salvation, but our peace begins to drift).
Ruth and I recently bought a [children's] book called 'The Dot'. It is about this little girl who couldn't do art and so hated art class. The teacher tried to encourage her by suggesting that she simply puts a mark on the page and sees where it leads. Out of frustration the girl picks up a pens and slams it down on the page creating a dot. The teacher looks at it for a while and then asks her to sign it.The next week the girl was shocked to see her dot in a gold frame above the teacher's desk. "I can do a better dot than that!" She said to herself still frustrated with being in the art class. She opened up her paints and began doing loads of dot pictures in various colours and sizes. In the end she had masses of dot pictures to display at the end of term and everyone was very impressed with them.
She noticed one young boy. He told her that he thought she was a great artist but he couldn't even draw a straight line with a ruler! She got him to show her. The girl looked at the squiggly line and then asked the boy to sign it...
When condemnation is at our centre it limits us; Christ, however, liberates us! We are no longer who we were, with Jesus we start to become who we could be.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Cor 5:17
posted by Andrew at 9:58 pm
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