Putting Yourself in Your Place
People sometimes wonder how we can relate to characters and stories in the Bible since we’re separated from them by time and culture. However, although the circumstances are different, the people involved are not. And although God dealt with them in situations different from ours, He is the same God now as then. So every biblical story teaches us something about God, and something about ourselves. If we look carefully, we see ourselves in Noah as we’re faced with the challenge of standing for God in an evil time. We see ourselves in Abraham’s dilemma because God calls us, too, to resist the temptation to create idols of anything, including our children, and be willing to give all for Him. We see ourselves in Moses’s reluctance to obey God’s mission and can identify with the sentiment “Here am I, but send someone else.” And in all that we’re faced with the reality of what we think about God. Is He good enough, and powerful enough, and worthy enough for me to follow Him?
In the story of Jonah, we see ourselves, and God, when He asks Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry? (Jonah 4:4). In reading Jonah, we should ask ourselves, “Am I right to be angry?” Or what about the many other things God tells us not to be? Are we right to be fearful when the most frequent command in the Bible is ‘Do not fear’ ‘Do not be afraid’? Are we right to be anxious? Are we right to worry? Are we right to despair as if God cannot fix it if He so chooses? Are we right to engage in self-pity, or live in frustration, or joylessness? We all know that the answer to God’s question to Jonah, and all those questions to ourselves, is ‘No’. So why then do we do them? It’s for very same reasons that Jonah did:
You are Less Than You Think
Our biggest problem is the way we think, and in particular what we think of ourselves. We all tend to be legends in our own mind. That’s why the Bible commands us: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought (Romans 12:3). So how ought we to think of ourselves?
Your worth is derived. We don’t have intrinsic worth. That is, we’re not valuable simply because we’re us. God has intrinsic worth – He is valuable and worthy in Himself. But our worth, our value is derived from our relationship to God. So, let’s recall what we are:
- We are creatures made by the Creator. We are dependent on Him for all things, including our value. We’d have none apart from Him. We’re of immense value because we are made in the image of God.
- We are recipients of God’s revelation to us in Scripture. We know nothing about ourselves by ourselves but only by God’s gracious disclosure of Who He is and what He has made us to be and do.
- We are the undeserving recipients of the offer of salvation in Jesus Christ and if we are indeed in relationship to God then it is by the grace of God alone Who made Himself known to us and moved on our hearts to see our need and embrace the Gospel and the Savior Who is central to it.
- We are Christ’s ambassadors called to carry out His work in His world so that every moment of every day our labor can have significance.
- We are citizens of Heaven who have been called into the kingdom of His dear Son and so are the guaranteed recipients of God’s future grace in a new world order free from sin and sickness and death.
And in all of this, remember, we’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and still sin every day in attitude and word and deed. We’ve committed cosmic treason against God and even as His born-again children still manifest the vestiges of the old manner of life, and yet all these things are still true of us:
- We’re reflect God’s character as His image-bearers, even though it’s diminished by our sin.
- We have God’s Word so that we do not grope in darkness but it’s lamp to our feet and light to our path.
- We have been called out of the world and into relationship with God because of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- We are gifted in unique ways to actively participate in the mission He’s given His people through His church.
- We will see Him, and be with Him, and praise Him perfectly, forever because we are in His family and He does not disinherit His children.
As followers of Jesus Christ we are blessed people and valuable people though still sinful people. That knowledge should thrill us, and humble us. We need not think highly of ourselves, but we need not think only poorly of ourselves either. C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”
But we play a game of thrones – removing God from His throne in our hearts and placing ourselves on it. When that happens everything that goes contrary to our liking becomes larger.
So, just who do we think we are? Do we deserve better than what God has given us and where He has us, so that it’s right for us to be angry or bitter or despondent or frustrated or anxious or fearful or joyless? The truth is, we are less than we think, because our value is derived from God. In turn, this means that …
Your problems are smaller than you think. Notice what it was that Jonah was angry over. God asked him: “Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” God had given the plant to provide shade for Jonah, but then chastises Jonah for his anger over its removal: You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow (Jonah 4:10). The truth is the Lord gives and the Lord takes away as Job said, and in either case, as sinners, we always have more than we deserve if we’re not in Hell. Every day I’m not in Hell is more than I deserve, but we magnify our problems because we magnify ourselves, so that we deserve better.
It’s amazing some of things we get upset over and even lose it over, as if we can’t function: Traffic, the way we look, a bad meal, a sick pet, a lost game, a lost opportunity, whatever. But hear this: You make a big deal out of small things because you’re carrying around a controlling thing. Honestly, much of what we call our problems would just be whining to the apostle Paul and Christians in other countries:
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed … We do not lose heart … For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 4:16-17)
Remember that …
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:2-4)
The more highly you think of yourself the more magnified your problems become. But you are less than you think and …
God is Greater Than You Think
The smaller your God, the bigger your problems seem. God orchestrated all of the events in Jonah’s life as He does all of the circumstances in yours. He knew Jonah would rebel, and in His grace to Jonah he wanted to expose Jonah’s rebellious heart. So He intervened with Jonah (1:4), and appointed a fish to swallow Jonah (1:17), provided a plant to cover Jonah (4:6), and took it away and caused discomfort for Jonah (4:8).
God did all of this in Jonah’s life to get his attention, and he does the same with us. When God launches a storm in your life, God wants to get your attention. Author Rick Thomas has said:
Your first thought must not be to run like Jonah but to discern what the Father has for you. Perhaps you would say God sent the storm because Jonah was sinning. That would be correct, but you cannot say God only sends storms to those who are actively disobeying Him. He may love a person who is sinning enough to throw a storm at him, the way He loved Jonah.
We know the storm He sent into Job’s life was not because Job was sinning (Job 1:1). We also know the storm He sent into Joseph’s life was not because Joseph was sinning (Genesis 37-50). And we certainly know the Savior was not sinning when He went through His storm.
It could be that God has brought a storm into your life for [reasons other than sin]. Rather than trying to figure out whether you “deserve” the storm based on your performance, it would be better to ascertain what God wants to teach you.
Work with objective data, not subjective or speculative thoughts that you center on your desires and wishes. Here are a few sure things you know about God. They will serve you when things are going bad:
- He is good.
- He loves you immeasurably.
- His storms are for His glory.
- His storms are for your good.
You can bank on these things. Rather than getting angry at the storm or the person you think is perpetrating the storm, it would be better to huddle up with God and seek to discern why He loves you this way. ((Rick Thomas, Storm Hurler, 25-26.))
God is greater than we think. His plan is fuller, His love is wider, and His purpose is larger. We must not reduce Him to the size of our circumstances. Instead, we should see ourselves in relation to His greatness which means putting ourselves in our place.
Ken Brown is the pastor of Community Bible Church in Trenton, MI. We republish his article by permission.
Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash