Who says?

What is the truth about you and who gets to say?

Is it your sister, your mother, or your spouse? Is it the amount of followers you have on Twitter or the friends you have on Facebook? Maybe it’s the person who neglected the friendship with you, or that kid in fifth grade who called you dumb. There are voices coming at you from all different directions. But which are valid? Which ones are speaking the truth?

What if I told you you are valued, loved, and cherished beyond belief? What if I spoke into your fear and told you are equipped for every good work which the God of the universe set you apart to do from before the beginning of time? Could you believe it? Would you?

The world will lie to you. Your value is in your career, money, or fame, it says. Your worth is in physical beauty–perfection. It’s the clothes you wear or the car you drive that makes you important. Are you clever or funny? Cynical or sad? Then that gives you worth, it whispers.

But when is it enough? How good do you have to be and what level wealth or success will give you peace? How high is the bar, and who set it?

I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but the truth is, you may never reach it.

Or maybe you will.

And then what?

God set eternity in the hearts of men. You and I, we have a built in longing for a relationship with the God who created the universe and everything in it. We can chase other gods. We can run after other things–money, power, acclaim–but they will never fill us, fulfill us.

Oh, they may be a temporary fix. Does it feel good to win? Of course. Do power and success touch our deep places making us feel awake and alive? I’d be lying if I said they didn’t. Admiration tastes sweet. And when we ache, when we hurt, popularity and fame are like a salve–a healing balm–covering over (even if only temporarily) that nagging void in all of us.

But they will never be the puzzle piece that fits the empty place in our hearts, the place that was made for and by the God of the universe. And I bet you know that. You know it’s never enough.

You know, because you’ve tried, haven’t you? I know I have. Addictions and desires, I’ve let them carry me. I’ve made people my god, their approval my sustenance. So many times I’ve been in that place, over and over. You know that place. Face down broken. Heart dead. Empty.

Again.

Because, here’s the deal–this is truth; whatever you’re chasing–whatever it is you’re running hard after–if it’s not God–it will never be enough. It will never fix you.

There is no pill for your sick heart. There is no cure for this poison you’ve swallowed. There is no repair for your broken. None.

I hate to be the one to tell you, but there is only way out. Death. That one first death and then a million other tiny moments of dying to yourself–your own selfish weakness–is the only way out of this mess we’re in. Letting go and letting God burn you down to ashes is the only true path to beauty.

It won’t be fun, and maybe it won’t look pretty. But it is the answer. It is the cure. It is because He is and always will be the only way to wholeness, to healing, to help.

What are you holding onto, or withholding from God, that is keeping you from being beautifully broken? Be made new today. Die to what you think you need and let God give you what He alone knows will satisfy your heart~