Validation

Acts 17:28(a)

“For in him we live and move and have our being”

Matthew 3:13-17

“13Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. 16After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Have you ever felt the need to be validated?

Validate- [to make valid; substantiate (to affirm as having substance; give body to; strengthen; confirm); to give legal force to; legalize].

Have you ever wanted to be affirmed by something or someone to confirm that you are indeed valuable?

When I first started taking God seriously as an early teen one of my biggest concerns was being validated by God.

Why?

When I first decided to live for God I felt like I was treated like an outsider in my Christian community. I was basically told I was doing “too much”, took it too seriously, and I was making myself miserable.

 Regardless of the circumstances, I felt that I did not have the emotional support of a Christian community. I felt that God had called me to do something that I felt no one supported or understood, and this caused me to feel ostracized.

I was miserable and felt stuck. I could barely talk to anyone and when I did no one seemed to understand what God had called me to do. The response I typically got was if you are unhappy then what are you doing???

 In this season I was so angry at God because I could not shake off the certainty and I TRIED that God had called me to do what I did (all of this was within Bible context). I spent countless nights praying that God would validate me. I would pray “Show all the people who don’t support me and make me feel like nothing that YOU care about me if no one else did. Show them that YOU are with me and that YOU care about me. Let them know (and me) that I am not a waste or missing it”.

Granted, some of those prayers had a vengeful twinge to them (God corrected me).

 But in all of it there was just this desire for me to feel validated.

 Unfortunately, at the time I did not feel that I had a natural support system to did that.

In a world where I constantly hear things like “I am a strong independent woman and I do NOT need a man to validate me” and other clichés I have learned from my experiences that romantic relationships are not the only thing that we humans (male and females) seek validation in.

 We can seek it in our talents,   in our friendships (besties),    material statuses, careers,   family, clothes,    body shape,    race,   culture,    beauty,   or whatever positive things others say about us consistently. All of these things are not evil in and of itself but if you are desiring to live the CHRISTian life then seeking validation from any of these things are wrong.

I know the above statement is rough.

In Proverbs 3:5, the Bible says to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” if you are giving God all your heart then you don’t have room to trust in other things like the things I just mentioned.

Paul had a similar situation in Philippians 3:4-9(a)

“although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

      7But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

Paul desired to “be found in HIM” God. He did not desire to be identified by his accomplishments, heritage, or other nonentities.

I say all this to end with my point that as humans we naturally want and seek validation from both certain things. If we all sat down and took account of our lives what would you say validate you?

Holy Spirit it says in YOUR WORD that you search deep within our hearts. Lord, go within ours and show us every area of our lives that we seek or find value in ourselves that is not based on YOU. Lord, I pray that we will find ourselves in YOU, and YOU alone and in nothing else. Lord thank YOU for all that you have given us, and may we always remember it is better to please YOU than men or ourselves in Jesus Christ’s name I pray, Amen.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Have you ever heard from a third person that someone is talking about you, and you immediately want to know who it is and what exactly they were saying about you?

I know that I have been there. Unfortunately, after I learned the information I wanted I was more times than not devastated by what was said and allowed it to consume my mind.Honestly, I really did not need to know the intimate details of what others were saying about me. As they say ignorance can be bliss, yet I still wanted to be aware of everything. You can say I wanted to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I am currently reading a book where the author gave an example of a friend who believed that God told her (the friend) and her fiancé to go separate ways. Of course this was a very hard and trying time for her friend, but she really believed that this was God's will and best for the both of them.She did complain to the author that while she was in the relationship it always bothered her how her fiance looked at other women, but whenever she brought the issue up it did not go anywhere.
After they broke up she had an urge to check his email to learn more about his private life. She broke into his email account and learned that he had been talking to other ladies for some time, even during the time they were together. This of course made her upset, but what really got to her over time is that she became obsessed with constantly checking his email. She would read all of her ex's correspondence between other ladies. Reading the emails ate her up inside. She wanted to stop but she couldn't. She sought out to look for information that she was not equipped to handle. She ate the forbidden fruit and gained knowledge that she was never supposed to be aware of aka "the knowledge of good and evil".

 It seems that most humans always want to be informed about everything to the minutest detail. From everything like global events, social events, who is talking about who, and so on. 
In Genesis 2:16 and 17 the Bible says
" And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."
Genesis is the first book in the Bible and the aforementioned verses are a short excerpt of the story of Adam and Eve, the first people that God created. In the verse God was commanding Adam about some of the rules of living in paradise on earth. God told Adam everything he could do and the one thing he could not do-- with an explanation. If Adam did what he was not supposed to do "he would certainly die". Long story short the devil, in serpent form, came to Eve and convinced Eve that God did not really mean what HE said and so Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Then she gave some to Adam her husband, who also ate it. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit they realized that they were naked, and for the first time in their lives they were ashamed. They ran from God. Because of their disobedience they were eventually kicked out of the garden of Eden.
Before this time, Adam and Eve had no concept of what shame was. They had no idea what it was like to be self-conscious of themselves, especially in a negative sense. God's original intent for us as humans, HIS creation, was not to be necessarily aware of the way we ourselves or others see us but rather be solely secure on how HE views us. As humans we think that being aware of everything around us will give us full security, but obviously the moral of Adam and Eve's story is that full security is only found in trusting God.
 As much as we would like to believe that we are powerful, no matter how strong you are or think you are, we as humans are not equipped and built to know all things. God is the only ONE who can handle everything, and though the information may be available to us (like the tree was in the garden of Eden), it is best when we choose to obey God's Word (Holy Spirit led) and not eat the fruit.

 God, I pray that YOU will give us direction and discretion not to acquire all of the knowledge that is available to us. Help us to seek YOUR Face before we take in information, give us discernment about what we do or do not need to know. And when YOU tell us NO, we do not need to know certain things, may we trust YOU. Because in trusting You is when we can have full security. Amen