Christ-Centered Ego Strength

      Meditations for Ragamuffins

August 23, 2023

Christ-Centered Ego Strength

“When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.”

John 11:33 

Because Jesus was fully human, he experienced the full range of human emotions. However, he not only experienced emotions and natural physical responses to his environment, he also fully expressed his humanity. When Jesus was angry, he expressed it. When he was disappointed with his disciples, he expressed it. When he was touched by human kindness, he responded with gratitude. When he was saddened by the sadness of others, he expressed it. When Jesus had an expectation for how he wanted details arranged, he expressed it. When he had a preference for his own comfort, like sleeping in the back of the boat during a storm, or needing to be alone, he expressed it. These are qualities of Jesus’ life that I believe he wants to live out in the lives of his followers as we seek the life in Christ as our way of life.

There are several ways these qualities can be made manifest in our daily lives. The narcissist has little trouble expressing their preferences in life. However, they also make little progress in dying to self so that Christ may express his preferences in their life. A person raised in a loving, affirming environment possesses sufficient ego-strength to express their preferences in an appropriate manner. By appropriate manner, I mean there are times when we should defer our preferences so that others may realize their preference.

However, for many people, expressing a preference is a challenge at best. When asked for our preference, we are far more comfortable deferring to others than expressing our heart’s desire. In fact, many people are so out of touch with their own needs they don’t really know what their heart desires. Ask them what they want for their birthday or where they want to go out to eat and they are stuck for an answer. I believe Jesus’ heart breaks for these of his brothers and sisters. He wants so very much for them to be so grounded in his unconditional love for them that they will grow to love themselves and mature with a Christ-centered ego-strength.

My Takeaway: As we train ourselves in the ways of Christ, and seek to respond to every interaction we have in life following the simple acrostic WWJD, I believe we will experience God forming Christ within us until we can easily say, “Thank you, I would like . . . “ 

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.