Nuggets from an Urgent Call to a Serious Faith by Dave Hunt - Does Peace Come by Finding Ourselves ...

Nuggets from “An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith” by Dave Hunt – Does Peace Come by Finding Ourselves or by Being Delivered from Ourselves?

Yes, God in His grace will give us crowns and rewards and we will even hear from our Lord’s lips, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew:25:21His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
See All...). But will that give us a positive self-image, a sense of self-worth and self-esteem? C. S Lewis answers: “The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well…the saved soul to whom Christ says, ‘Well done,’ are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you rightly wanted to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, ‘I have pleased him,’ to thinking, ‘What a fine person I must be to have done it.’”

Our love for God even influences whether we yield to temptation. Lust is called both “deceitful” (Ephesians:4:22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
See All...) and “hurtful” (1 Timothy:6:9But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
See All...) because it entices us with pleasure that is brief and involves disobedience to God and thus leads to pain and ruin in the end. Those whose focus is upon themselves think of God’s commandments in terms of pleasures denied. But those who are enraptured by God’s love have been delivered from self and find true and lasting pleasure and joy in obeying and thus pleasing Him. There is a joy that comes from pleasing God that is so far beyond any pleasure of this world that temptation loses its power in comparison.

The new theology denies us this path of victory. Its joy is selfish. To obey the first and great commandment is necessarily to deny self as Christ commanded (Matthew:16:24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
See All...). Nor can one deny self and at the same time love, esteem, and value self. Seeing God’s love as a response to my significance and worth salvages just enough value for self to deny God’s truth. Let us forget ourselves, our needs, and hurts, and seek to know and love God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) because of who He is and His love and grace to us. His love will then flow through us to others, whom we will then esteem better than ourselves (Philippians:2:3Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
See All...). Such is the path to true joy (Hebrews:12:2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
See All...).