P31 OBS Uninvited Week 5: Looking for acceptance in all of the Wrong Places

While reading Uninvited today, I came across this scripture and settled there for a moment.

1 John 2: 16
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

This is something that I struggle with all of the time.  

The messages of this world are only getting louder and more overwhelming.  Just yesterday after teaching my fitness class, we were discussing how the food marketers have studied people and have upped the ante on their marketing of unhealthy foods.  The other day while watching football I was amazed at how many commercials presented all of these tantalizing and sensual commercials about PIZZA and other JUNK FOODS.

Those commercials are designed to promote cravings in our brains so we go out and purchase them.  They do nothing for our health or give us the nutrients we need but they cause us to feel good for the short when we eat them but long term will lead to damage.

No nutrients and no benefits but plenty of problems if we consume these foods long term such as: chronic diseases, obesity, aches and pains, and possibly early death.

Same with the worldly offerings:  

Physical Pleasure...

They tell us that physical pleasure without intimacy will make us feel good and it will...in the short term.  In the Long term, relationships without intimacy will cause more damage.

Craving for everything we see

This is almost prophetic for social media.  There have been entire ministries and movements based on the portrayals of lifestyle on social media.  

Lysa cites an interesting study that 14% of people left social media encouraged.  86% of people left more discouraged.  When we look at Facebook or Instagram and see people with the perfect hair, makeup, husband, and children we crave that not knowing what's on the other side of it.

The world offers us Fools Gold a lot of the time.  Oh look at this!  See how wonderful it is...not knowing that not doing things God's way will always have a price and long term cost that we may not want to pay.

Pride In Our Accomplishments

Now this has been my struggle for the longest.  I feel like I have less of a chance of being rejected if I can hide by my accomplishments.  Look at the list!  Who would reject someone like this?  Also while in pursuit of these accomplishments it gives me time to hide away and not have to face my own emptiness.  I tried unsuccessfully for years to fill my emptiness with accomplishments.

It became exhausting.  It became all about On To The Next One and I was devastated when I wasn't accomplishing anything.

Pride in our Possessions

The world has tricked an ENTIRE GENERATION into believing the most important things in life are to be rich and famous.  There's an entire generation of people who have done nothing but are making tons of money and are popular for it.  When you tell people: Why is this person popular?  They don't contribute anything to society.  Chances are you will hear:  So what?  They are getting money.  Their rich and beautiful.

The world offers materialism which is supposed to fill voids but lasts all of 60 seconds or less before you get on social media and realize that other people have more, have better, and it does not fill the emptiness.

These are not from the Father....It's looking for acceptance in all of the wrong places

We think that if we  have all of the things that I just listed above that we will feel less empty.  We will be accepted.  I've thought that but none of those things I listed last.  They are all gone with the wind. 

Physical pleasure without intimacy soon gets old and tired and moves on to the next one

Wanting everything we see can lead us down some roads that are hard to get back from

Accomplishments will not save us because we will never accomplish enough

Possessions...Well you can lose it all in the blink of an eye.

None of these things last or will fill our voids because they are not from God.  

It's a result of looking for acceptance in all of the wrong places

Acceptance from the RIGHT source and RIGHT PLACE

On This Sacred Journey I will say that over the past year or so I've learned self acceptance because I've learned that I am enough.  I believe that accepting my calling from God has helped me in that regard because it's FROM HIM.  It's not from the world and they cannot take it away. 

Being accepted by God and Him filling my empty places has helped me understand so much.

It has helped me understand the concept of being set apart for preparation and not set aside because I am not good enough (Lysa helped me come up with a good description for it)

It's helped me realize that we should not believe everything we see from people because we never know WHAT is really going on behind the scenes.  It could all be based on lies.

It's helped me realize that whatever I accomplish is for the Glory of God and not my own selfish ambition.  It's helped me understand I can accomplish so much more if I leave it to God to direct the show instead of me trying to figure it out and make a mess of things.

It's helped me understand that possessions and worldly accomplishment is so fleeting and so not based on anything of substance that it doesn't really matter.

My Flesh and Heart May Fail....

I want to make it clear that I am not perfect.  I still struggle with all of these things.  Later on this week I will be sharing how my own heart is being hardened and I'm becoming cynical as time goes on...but I freely admit to being a work in progress and I take the wisdom of this scripture.