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 Adapted from The Search for Significance by Robert McGee All Scripture references are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.
4 Truths That Will Change Your Life
“Saturday Night Live” used to have a sketch called, “Daily Affirmation with StuartSmalley.” In this sketch, Stuart Smalley wanted to have a person look in the mirror andsay, “I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.” His goalwas to make that person feel good about himself or herself. What would happen if thatwasn't true? What if that person was not good enough or smart enough. What if people really did not like that person?We have a tendency to determine our self worth by this equation:
My performance + Other peoples' opinions about me = My self worth
The problem with this equation is that it is a never ending battle to feelsignificant. You will not always perform at a high level and people are fickle and theiropinions constantly change.God has a different equation for self worth:
God's truth about me = My self worth
Unlike the first equation, this equation does not change. When you make Jesusthe boss of your life and you surrender your life to Him, you can trade the first equationof self worth for the second one. You can only base your worth on God's truth if youhave given your life to Christ. Otherwise, these truths don't apply. Jesus said, “ And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John8:32)Here are four truths that will change your life. The more deeply you get ahold of them, the more radically your life will be changed.
Truth #1
It's 4
th
and 9 with 3:26 left in the game. Ben is the quarterback for the Dragons,who are down 17-13. Ben's coaches know him to be an extremely hard worker. He'salways staying after practice to get in extra throws and runs all his sprints hard. As theplay comes in , “Right 895” , his stomach tightens up. Ben always plays hard, but he'salways uptight. He is afraid of messing up. As he gets under center and scans thedefense, he desperately hopes that he can complete this pass. The ball is snapped andhe rolls out to the right. His receiver runs a beautiful ten yard square out pattern andBen lets the ball fly. The pass sails high and the receiver can't get up high enough tohaul it in. The pass is incomplete and the other team takes over on downs. They runout the clock and win the game. Ben is devastated. For the next two days, he sits in hisroom and doesn't talk to anybody.
 
Clint plays outside linebacker for the Dragons. He's only a freshman. At practice,he gets run over or burnt a lot. Clint doesn' t get to play in games because he rarely ever puts forth any effort. He's not very good, and he doesn't want to fail, so he doesnot try because then he has an excuse. Halfway through the season he quits the teambecause he's tired of failing.Both Clint and Ben are operating with the same thought process. Deep down,they both believe, “I must meet certain standards to be worthwhile.” If they fail, they feel worthless. It is interesting that this belief causes different reactions. Ben fearsfailure so much, that he will do anything he can to prevent it. Clint, on the other hand,avoids any possibility where he could fail. He doesn't give effort because he tells himself that it doesn't matter.The first truth that will change your life is:
You are fully acceptable and totally pleasing to God
How does this work? These passages shed some light on why this is true.
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him Godreconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven andon earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts andactions. Yet now, he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in hisphysical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy andblameless as you stand before him without a single fault
.
Colossians 1:19-22
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become therighteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)When Christ died on the cross, he took on himself all of the bad things we'vedone. When he died, all of those bad things we've done (or will do) were destroyed.He took our sin, and gave us his perfection. The end of the first passage says that westand before God as “holy and blameless...without a single fault.” You don't have tomeet certain standards. Christ has already done that. Even if you fail, you are stillwithout fault. If anyone disagrees with that, who's right...that person or God?When we understand this truth, we can be freed from the fear of failure and canwalk in confidence. It allows us to take risks and in athletics, it can help us play to winrather than playing not to lose. Any sports psychologist will tell you that playing withconfidence is the key to playing well. It is a freeing feeling to be confident about who
 
 you are.
Truth #2
Blaine always needs an audience. Every time he makes an outstanding catch forthe Dragons, he has to point it out to everyone. In fact, many of his teammates labelhim as arrogant because he is always talking about how great he is. He's alwaysshowing off and trying to be the center of attention. What they don't realize is thatBlaine doesn't brag and show off because he thinks he's great. He wants everyone elseto think he's great. Whenever anyone says anything negative about him, it really bothers him and he sulks about it for hours when he gets home. It is disastrous whenthe coaches get upset with him. He hangs his head and his performance takes atailspin.Caleb is a linebacker for the Dragons and he's a complete loner. He rarely talks toanyone and doesn't engage at all in the usual locker room horseplay. Some of histeammates perceive him as stand-offish and he does things his own way.If you look closely at these two players, they are both operating out of the sameassumption: “I must be accepted by others to be worthwhile.” Blaine tries to show off in order to get people to like him. His mood is dependent on their perception of him.Caleb doesn't like to be around people much because if they can't reject him, he'll stillbe worthwhile. He doesn't think they'll like him anyway, so why try? The problem withthis mindset is that people are very fickle. One minute they love you and the nextminute they don't. The problem with trying to please everyone is that you can't do it.When you do, it doesn't last very long.The second truth that will change your live is :
You are deeply loved and accepted by God
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's childrenbecause they don't know him.
1 John 3:1
Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.
Romans 15:7 As these verses point out, God not only makes us righteous, he calls us hischildren! We belong to him! We are accepted by Him! This is especially freeing on theathletic field as we no longer have to be a slave to the cheer of the crowd or theapproval of our coaches and teammates. Even though we may fail or do somethingtotally boneheaded, we can rest in the fact that we are accepted and loved by God.Nothing is ever going to change that.
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