Prayer To Let Go Of The Need To Be Right Or Popular

During these weeks of Lent where we are preparing our hearts to be more open and available to the life of God given to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection, it’s interesting that I once again bump into reflections on this verse we have visited several times in this blog.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

It was presented to me recently in the Message translation.  Listen to this:

I have been crucified with Christ.  My ego is no longer central.  It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God.  Christ lives in me.  The life you see me living is not “mine,” but is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I am not going to go back on that.  Galatians 2:20 MSG

I think we fairly readily know that our ego needs to not be front and center in our relationships or we’ll soon not have too many fulfilling ones.  No one likes what we used to call an “ego-maniac” who needs all the attention and who always thinks they are right.  They are some of the hardest people to be around aren’t they?  But, what about that next sentence.  I think that’s the challenge for me. How about for you?

It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. 

Now, I have to say that I lived under a heavy burden for many years when I was trying to “impress God” and living a mixed up life – what I call the checkerboard period of my life – where I looked fine to others when I was out about in the community in my work and church life but then when I was home on my own life was very dark and confusing and heavy and just exhausting.  We’ll skip the details for today but let me just say that when I finally got to the end of myself and admitted to God and myself that I just couldn’t manage and needed to find another way, God, in His great kindness, started to rebuild me from the inside out. 

It is so much better to come to God exactly as we are – on the good days and in the rotten times – and just be real – start there.  Oh, we need to let Him show us His way to bring us out of the difficulty but we start by being real about how tired or stupid or frustrated or hurt we are and then work with Him from that real place. 

I’m not so sure I’ve come to the same level of peace and settledness when it comes to the: “It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion.  There is a part of me that reacts in a painful way when I am unfairly judged, especially if no effort has been made to find out the facts from me.  I can manage people at a distance a bit better than I can those who are closer to me.  Then, I’m afraid, I too often still want to be held in a good light by them. 

Bottom line is, it helps to admit mistakes much more quickly than I ever did in the past because I do make mistakes – lots of them.  The faster I admit that and ask for forgiveness the faster that scratch on my soul gets clean water and begins to heal.  The more I sit quietly with God when someone has expressed an opinion of who I am or what I’ve done that is truly incorrect (that’s less often than when I’ve made mistakes, by the way) – the quicker I ask the Holy Spirit to work in me to speak truth and comfort and blessing – the faster the hurt is dealt with and I find peace for the turbulence going on inside.

Let’s pray for God to do this ongoing work in us shall we?

Lord, we know that when we give our lives to You we are, in fact, crucified with Christ, and a new and life-giving relationship with the Living God is established forever.  However, just like a new baby comes into being at conception and then is displayed to the world at birth with all it’s vulnerabilities and needs to grow and develop, so we know that our life with You is about growing and being transformed so we become more and more like Jesus.

In this ego-centric world we live in, we too often find ourselves focused too much on ourselves – our needs, our opinions, our ways.  Lord, forgive us and help us find Your way for us in this day to let the individual characteristics You created us to display come forward but always in service of You, Your kingdom, and on behalf of our neighbour. 

How Lord do we ever get to the point of not needing to appear right and good in the eyes of others?  Jesus, You really showed the way by hanging on that cross for the very people who were mocking you and bad-mouthing you while you hung there.  Give us grace and humility, we pray, to hear what others are saying, to bring it before You, and to learn both to be changed in ways we need changing, and to be strong enough to stand true in who You say we are even when others get it wrong about who we are. 

Today, loving God, we are simply grateful that You live in us and that Your life is more and more coming to the foreground of our thinking, our emotions, our desires, and our choices.  We’re not all the way there yet, of course, but we are on that journey with You and in faith we believe that You will complete the work that You’ve started – not because of our abilities and persistence, but because You promise to stick with us and help us.  We’re going to live by faith today in the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us.  Amen

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  Philippians 1:6