IS YOUR GOD'S NAME "SELF"? Sex is far from being the only problem. The presence of vanity, egotism, hostility, fear, indifference, and downright meanness can be counted on among professing Christians.
But as in the church, so in life generally, few are ready to deal with the realities of the deeper self, in themselves or in others. And those few are not exactly welcomed by others.
Self-esteem in such a situation will only breed self-deception and frustration—as is now increasingly recognized, by the way.
Fear of God, the proverb tells us, is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Although not the end or outcome of wisdom, to be sure, it is the indispensable beginning, I believe, and the principle part. One begins to get smart when he or she fears being crosswise of God: fear of not doing what he wants and not being as he requires. Fear is the anticipation of harm. The intelligent person recognizes that his or her well-being lies in being in harmony with God and what God is doing in the “kingdom.” God is not mean, but he is dangerous. It is the same with other great forces he has placed in reality. Electricity and nuclear power, for example, are not mean, but they are dangerous. One who does not, in a certain sense, “worry” about God, simply isn’t smart. And that is the point of the verse.
Philip Yancey tells us, The
historian of Alcoholics Anonymous titled his work Not-God because, he said,
that stands as the most important hurdle an addicted person must surmount: to
acknowledge, deep in the soul, not being God. No mastery of manipulation and
control, at which alcoholics excel, can overcome the root problem; rather, the alcoholic
must recognize individual helplessness and fall back in the arms of the Higher
Power. “First of all, we had to quit playing God,” concluded the founders of
AA; and then allow God himself to “play God” in the addict’s life, which
involves daily, even moment-by-moment, surrender. pp. 49-52 AWESOME SOURCE
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