Deep within us there rages a battle to be like God. This self-made image in our hearts begs to be identified as master and lord of our universe. The flesh wants life to revolve around itself, Not Christ. But Bonhoeffer begs the Christian to realize, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Victoria Osteen's message justifies my natural fleshly desires: "Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself."
At the very core of her message is a humanistic philosophy.
According to Victoria Osteen, wife of megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen, “I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God—I mean, that’s one way to look at it—we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy,” she declares in the undated 36-second clip with her husband standing by her side and nodding. “That’s the thing that gives Him the greatest joy…”
Her sermon has gone viral as the Christian community protests its humanistic and scripturally antithetical message.
“The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes from outside ourselves.” (John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life)
I'm not going to lie. I like being being needed. There is a great satisfaction in feeling important and significant in this life. I love people and I want people to love me back. I like the popular feeling when I walk into a room and people crowd around me. Then there is the natural craving to having a man attracted to me and pursuing my heart. Ironically thought, I've come to realize that those things do not satisfy nor have I discovered my purpose in life fulfilled in the empty pursuit of "self".
What do you do when life doesn't make sense? Where is God in these moments and what is He trying to tell us? As we come to the end of our series on The Lord's Prayer I want you to ponder this statement, LIFE ISN'T ABOUT YOU.
