Stockholm Syndrome

I am my own affliction. I am my own disease. There ain't no drug that they can sell...The sickness is myself!

We are slaves. We are all held hostage by something unseen. Unfortunately, we have identified with our captors, and we have become our own afflictions. We were created to be in perfect harmony with our Creator, and we were stamped with the image of God. However, we messed things up, and now, due to the curse of our sin, we are the corrupted and diluted image of our Holy and pure God. We are rebels by nature. Even in the Garden of Eden (living in perfection) we could not help ourselves, we still fought against our Creator. Although, we like to believe that we are just good people, who occasionally do bad things; the truth is, that we are bad people, who occasionally do good things. I know this comes as a hard pill to swallow, but if we examine the evidence, we'll find it to be truthful.

As a race we often like to minimize our sin, and believe that it's not as big of a deal as God believes it is. Well, Jesus won't let us get away with that. We often look at rapists and murderers, and believe that we're good people in comparison to them. Yet, the Son of God puts the rest of us on the same level, by explaining that if we even look at someone who isn't our spouse with lust, then it's the same as adultery or having hateful thoughts or feelings towards someone is the same as killing them. Based off of this explanation, if I am honest with myself I'm an adulterer, a murderer, a thief, a cheat, a deviant, etc... So, with this knowledge, why do we believe that we're good people, when the all-knowing God of the universe just told us we were the same as the "bad people"?

Maybe the key is that we like to view sin as a series of bad habits, which lead us to continue making bad decisions. However, habits have a beginning, and if you fight hard enough, they can have an end. I have a terrible habit of biting my nails, but I can remember a time when I didn't bite my nails. It becomes clear that the individual sins that each of us struggle against are not just bad habits, but symptoms of a much larger problem. I can clean up individual sins, but the temptation to rebel against my Creator still thrives deep inside me. And left to your own devices, you will continually fall into the same old temptations, again and again.

Now, that everyone feels good about themselves, I want to let you know that this isn't the end of the story. There is hope that arises from our broken lives. There is a solution, but it's not a quick fix. This is an overhaul, which relies on you completely letting go of who you are, and becoming a slave to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You're humanity has led you to destruction, but by asking the Son of God to make you over, you can rediscover the image of God that was implanted in you long before you were born. Maybe you shouldn't feel good about who you are, in fact you probably shouldn't, but you can take pride in what Christ did for you. Even though we live in sin and depravity, the God of the universe loved us so much, that He gave up His own Son as a perfect sacrifice, so that we could live forever in relationship with Him. The truth is, we are bad people, but we serve a God who is Great, Pure, and Holy.

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Pray
That God will grant you the humility to understand that we are bad people, but you can make us holy.