Monday, May 1, 2023

Have you ever wondered how others see you? My guess is everyone has at one time or another. In the weekend message, we heard that “our greatest desire is to be seen for who we are, and our greatest fear is to be seen for who we are.”

We desperately seek to be recognized for our real selves, putting forth every effort to show people the real us. But do we really want people to see our warts and all, or do we want them to see us the way we hope to be seen? Because when the reality of self examination sets in, we are deathly afraid that people will see us for who we really are and not like what they see!

Imagine a paradise where you could just be you—no shame, no blame, no harsh judgments. How wonderful that would be! Total freedom, right? Well, that was God’s intention in the very beginning of creation.

Genesis 2:25
Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

God wanted man to have a life of total freedom. He placed Adam and Eve in a beautiful paradise and gave them everything they could possibly desire, with one exception.

Genesis 2:15-17
¹⁵ The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. ¹⁶ But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— ¹⁷ except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Now, God did not mean that the man would immediately lose his life from a physical standpoint; rather, due to the man’s lack of trust in God, the spiritual bond would be broken between them. If you know the story, you recognize that's exactly what happened. If not—spoiler alert—when the man and his wife ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they became ashamed. Their former relationship with God had been severed.

We continue to struggle with this today and it can impact our relationship both with God and with others. We do not always trust how God sees us nor fully understand he loves us tremendously, so much so that he made a way for us to return to him through Christ (John 3:16). Instead we operate out of fear and feel we have to put a mask on to impress him and the people around us.

So how do we get freedom from this behavior? Stop trying to please God and start trusting him. If you trust someone you are honest with them, which is this week’s bottom line:

The road to freedom requires honesty with God and others.

Let’s go back to that paradise I mentioned earlier. What would it be like if you could live a life of total honesty with God and others? Can you imagine having no shame or worry about what others think about you because you learned to fully put your trust in God and see yourself as he sees you?

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like freedom to me.

Questions:
Do you put on a mask when you are associating with others?

Do you trust and believe who God says you are?

Next Steps:
Make a conscious effort to focus on who God says you are.

Join one of the 6-week Freedom Groups going on at a campus near you to discover more about living a life of freedom.

Text the word “FREEDOM” to 419-419-0707 to get a link to CedarCreek’s weekly podcast .

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, from the moment of man’s first sin in the Garden, our eyes have been opened to the imperfect beings we are. I am so thankful that you do not intend for me to live life in shame and fear by focusing on what I think of myself. Help me to trust in you and who you say I am and to be honest with you and those around me so that I may find the “paradise” of freedom you intended for me. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.

Series Theme Verse:

Philippians 2:13

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.