We frequently crave unconditional love, desiring others to meet our emotional needs and give us grace when we mess up. We’re all seeking, thirsty, and hoping to fill our cup. Yearning to be known. We often expect life to match the picture in our heads, yet, we’re reaching for what’s impossible. We all hunger for what only God can provide.
Many times, the true definition of family/friends bewilders me. Close, supportive, understanding??? Selfless/giving/understanding??? Dream on! I say. Each has their own cup to bear, best find what is truly true! More importantly, I am left knowing that I have a reason/a cause. No matter how indepth I ponder, I am for a reason.
But what exactly does this mean for my life?
Such a simple sentence can put you on a long search in the attempt to wrap your arms around the full implications. It turns out, what it means to be made in God’s image comes with a lot of right answers.
“Historically,” John Piper said in one Ask Pastor John episode, “people have said to be made in God’s image is our morality, our sense of right and wrong. Our rationality, our ability to reason. Our spirituality, our ability to relate to God. Our aesthetic sense — you don’t find too many monkeys creating Mona Lisas. Our judicial sense, the whole legal system, a sense of right and wrong and justice and injustice. And I think, frankly, all of those are true and aspects of what it means to be in God’s image” (episode 153).
And they all help to inform why we stand for the dignity of all human life, including the unborn, the disabled, the terminally sick, and the elderly.
The bottom line is, image bearing has a lot of right definitions because we are unique and complex creatures made by an infinite and gloriously multifaceted God.
Tell God what you want or need and ask Him to provide that for you. Be specific about your request. Even though God knows what you want and need, He wants you to ask Him for it. God can answer vague prayers, but being specific creates a deeper bond between you and Him.
But what I find especially interesting is how Pastor John focuses on one meaning that often gets missed, perhaps for its simplicity. But to find this one point, there’s not one place to go, not simply one book chapter on image bearing. How he explains our role as image-bearers is consistent, but it’s also scattered throughout John Piper’s articles, paragraphs in books, statements, interviews, and forewords. I’ll attempt to gather and superglue together the image-bearing picture.
Occasionally, others appear to have found the acceptance we covet. But if we could peek into each heart, we’d recognize everyone has empty places and unfulfilled longings. Feelings aren’t right or wrong—they just are. It’s how we respond to them that either binds us or sets us free. When we seek from others what we can only find in the arms of Christ, our ache only increases. We might become possessive or resort to manipulation, which pushes people away instead of drawing them close. When we turn to Jesus, however, He fills our souls with peace and calm, allowing us to love unconditionally.
God created us for relationship with Him and others. We’re wired for connection and community. Our desire for affection, friendship, and communication is good and healthy. The problem comes when we expect humans to meet all our needs or give us perfect love.
1. What Are You Asking For?
And how bold and free we then become in His presence, freely asking according to His will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.
1 John 5:14-15 (MSG)
It’s easy to miss the part that says, “according to His will.” Because the truth is, you can ask until you’re blue in the face. But God is never going to give you something that isn’t in His will for you.
So how can you know His will? It’s all over the Bible. If you dig into it, you’ll find out His desire for you.
But the main thing God wants for you is a godly life. And if what you’re pleading for goes against that? He’s highly unlikely to answer your prayer with a yes.
2. What Are You Doing Or Not Doing?
Have you ever had a strong prompting to do something? Like, in your gut you just knew it was what you should do next?
Maybe you’ve had a strong feeling that you should start tithing. Or volunteer to serve in a community outreach project. Or that take a leap of faith into something completely new.
A lot of times, that spirit-deep prompting is God. And He isn’t going to say something new until you stop ignoring Him.
Let’s take a practical example. Remember how God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, in Jonah 1:2? And what did Jonah do? He not only ignored God, he actually went in the exact opposite direction. Simply because He didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Of course, you know how that act of defiance turned out.
Sitting in the fish’s belly, Jonah desperately cried out to God for deliverance and God mercifully made the fish spit him out. Then what did He say to Jonah? Yup, “Go to Nineveh.” (Check out Jonah 3:2.)
So your question to answer is: have you been ignoring God’s prompting to do — or not do — something? If so, then He’ll seem silent. Because He’s already given you directions that you’re not following.
3. What Are You Afraid Of?
There was Moses, minding his business in Midian, tending his father-in-law’s sheep. Suddenly, God gave him the epically huge job of leading the Israelites out of slavery and into the Promised Land.
This was the opportunity of a lifetime. And what did Moses say?
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
Exodus 4:10-12 (NLT)
Over the course of Exodus 3-4, Moses basically said, “You’ve got the wrong guy, Lord. I’m nobody. Also, Pharoah won’t listen to me. Also, what if the Israelites don’t believe me? Also, I hate public speaking!”
Lots of fear-based excuses from Moses. But can you blame him? This move would disrupt his life and really put him out there. The thing is, not one of Moses’ excuses changed God’s mind.
What about you? Have you been ignoring God’s solution to your problem because it may disrupt your life? Then you should know that your fear-based excuses won’t change His mind.
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-do-i-exist
Gives life to the dead? My career? My future is in Christ, Amen. I serve victory, Hallelujah, Amen.
7 Scriptures about Speaking Things into Existence
- Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21
- Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.. Phil 4:8
- And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. Matt 21:22
- So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
- Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Mark 11:23
- But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matt 4:4
BONUS:
- For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 1 Peter 3:10
This verse says so much! What is faith?
