Self-centeredness continues to be the Achilles heel of so many people who desire to follow Christ. We want to serve Him but can’t seem to get our eyes off ourselves. Instead of focusing on how amazing God is, we are content to fret over how miserable we are. A.W. Tozer once said, “The life of the normal believing child of God can never be a life of gloom and pessimism, for it is the Holy Spirit of God who keeps us above the kind of gloomy resignation that marks the secularism of the day.”
We acknowledge with our minds the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, but live as if He doesn’t exist at all.
If we believe Jesus dwells within us, wouldn’t it follow we would do the things He did? Wouldn’t it only make sense we would see the world through the lens of His perspective rather than our own? And wouldn’t our focus always be on the One who permeates our soul? There are only two choices; either we believe Christ sent His Spirit to dwell in us when we surrendered our lives to Him, or it’s all a farce and our profession of faith was meaningless. If we believe God now lives inside us, why do we keep living as if He does not?
Our self-centeredness blinds us to everything God wants to do through us. We become discouraged and depressed when our lives don’t pan out as we hoped they would. But our hopes and dreams are almost always rooted in what we desired for ourselves, not in what we wanted to do for Jesus. Often we mask our own ambitions by wrapping them in a “Jesus covering” so it looks like we are doing what we do for Him, but deep inside we know it’s really only our own selfish ambition and dreams.
How can we get down when we have Jesus with us in every moment? No matter what happens in this life, He is right beside us, so close He is actually inside us! He sees everything we go through, hears every word we speak, and is aware of every thought we think. We don’t fool Him with our piety; He knows us inside and out. I believe it would be difficult to be a Christ follower and hold on to a pessimistic viewpoint. We have the hope of the world inside us and we know how the story ends for those who hold fast to their faith in Jesus.
Doom and gloom have no place in the life of a disciple. Darkness cannot permeate the light of Jesus as long as we are standing in it. When you are despairing or pessimistic about your life, you have fallen into the trap of self-centeredness. You have forgotten the Spirit of God dwells inside you. You have all power, all hope, all the good things God intended for you at your fingertips. You need only take your eyes off yourself and focus them where they belong, on the Holy, all-powerful, all-loving, all magnificent King of the Universe. He is the lover of your soul. He is all you need. Remember whose you are. Remember who dwells inside you. Put away your self-centeredness and live the life He created for you.