Posted on January 17, 2010 - by Tim L
How to look good naked……be yourself
We carry on with our 3 weeks series aimed at getting us off to a good start in the year,…It is very relevant to this time of year,…How to look good naked,….
Gyms and diet classes are bulging but if we look just at the physical part of our lives we can run into problems.
This is not about plastic surgery,…
It is not about fashion,….
It is about our relationships with ourselves, with others and with God.
Bible reading and Discussion
“And because of God’s gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you.”
Romans 12 : 3 The Good News Bible
Take a look at the Asbo Jesus cartoon for January 11, 2010
Do you identify with the cartoon? Can you be you? Can you ever be yourself?
If you remember when we looked at Genesis 2 we discovered that naked was once OK. There once was no embarrassment about it, there was no shame,
Tell me story
Where we all change
And we’d live our lives together
And not estranged
Can you be who you really are?
Do you even know who you really are?
Do you know you are beautiful? Or does everyone else think that you are apart from you?
Paul, writes to the Christians in Rome that they need to see each other as they really. Now some of us really struggle with that concept don’t we?
Some of us see ourselves in a very positive light and think that we look great naked, Others of us are not so sure about it all and keep well and truly covered up, even in the height of summer.
Some of us could change the world in the blink of an eye whilst others don’t believe that we are capable of anything.
Both of those extremes are dangerous and I think both can lead us to a life of regrets.
Do you have a right view of yourself?
How do you see yourself?
I would like us to go back to Genesis 3 that we looked at briefly last week.
How do Adam and Eve see themselves? Do they see themselves according to the amount of faith they have been given?
Bible reading
1The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. 3It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. 5God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it-she’d know everything!-she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”-saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
8When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
9God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
10He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
Genesis 3 : 1-10 (The Message)
Adam and Eve got it wrong - they disobeyed - they go their own way. They makes their choices and decisions based on how they saw themselves. They wanted to be like God, they wanted to know everything. They thought they could deal with the choices they were going to make, but they could not see the whole picture - precisely because they were not God. In many ways they were children not really knowing who they were or the consequences of the choices they were going to be making. The boundaries were in place to be ignored.
Paul reminds us in Romans, we are called to judge or measure ourselves by how much faith God has given to us. If you like if we want to get a good look at ourselves, if we want to see ourselves as we really are,…naked,….we can only see ourselves right through God’s eyes - because of the faith he has given to each one of us.
Now some of you at this point are making a clever escape because of the way you see yourself. It goes something like this, “I know I don’t have much faith so I can carry on with the way that I am.” Well, that might be all well and good but Jesus did say that faith the size of a mustard seed will move a mountain.
Some of you will be doing the opposite and it goes something like this, “I don’t need God I can change myself on my own, because I can change the world in a blink of an eye.” That person is acting with no faith at all, they are saying that they do not need God. And we know that pride comes before a fall.
I think we can all struggle sometimes with who we really are. Events might happen that mean we don’t like ourselves every much. Sometimes we have to change the way we think or the way we act because it is not healthy for us people or for us. We tell ourselves lies about who we really are. The cover up stories we invent so others cannot find our mistakes or insecurities.
Someone once said “that the most painful journey we take is the journey to discover who we really are.”. God promises he will never leave us. We often think that is about where we go geographically, but I also think it means he will go with us on the journey to discover who we are really are. In fact, I would agree with Paul, and go one step further and say that that it is only when we live in relationship with God that we see who we really are.
So where does that leave us?
- Don’t be afraid to discover who you really are. Jesus will be with you. Don’t be afraid to begin, don’t be afraid to carry on.
- Ask Jesus to help you with how you really see yourself. We need to see ourselves through the lens of faith that God has given to each of us.
- Finally, Robbie William’s request to for someone to sing him a love song, drop him a line, Robbie someone has and is. God sings that love songs and is a great letter writer.
With God you can dare to be yourself - naked!