Posers

 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.  Psalm 51:6

In one of his devotional writings, Paul Tripp asks a question that is hard to hide from but which most seek to do anyway. He asks, "Is there someplace or some way in my life where I'm a fake?" Where can we hide from that question? We all have a way we hope the world, and for the believer, the Body of Christ sees us. We want our strengths to be noticed and amplified and our flaws to be hidden or outright denied. So often, we want to be seen as strong, courageous, completely faithful, dedicated, loyal, and so much more, when in truth, we're not. We want to be seen as having everything together, even as our lives are collapsing all around us. I had a teacher in high school that would always say, "To thine own self be true." We used to laugh about it, but she gave sound advice. How true to ourselves are we really? Where have we been working so hard to fool not only those around us, but ourselves as well?

Scripture says that He means for His truth to penetrate into the very marrow of our being. Our surface response to this truth is that we do want to know the truth of His Word and experience it as well. He desires that we not only know the truth of His Word, but also the truth about ourselves. When He pursues us with His zeal that we should know it, all of it, our first impulse is to run. He brings us to the cross. At the cross we not only come face to face with the crucified Christ, but with the reality of our uncrucified selves. At the cross, every lie, especially the ones we've been telling ourselves is exposed. At the cross they're brought into the Light. At the cross, they have no place to hide.

I've read a number of books by author John Eldredge, who's a very transparent writer. One of the things he tends to say about himself is that in too many areas of his life, he's "a poser." Someone who poses as something or someone they're not. Even in very small ways. Where are you and I "posers" in our lives? He seeks that we would drop the facade, come clean and come real to Him and in Him. No longer fakes and no longer posers. Caring no longer about how we look to the world or even the church. Only about how we look to Him. Let us come...to the cross. Fakes and posers no more.

Blessings,
Pastor O