Devotional Thought of the Day:
¹⁰  and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. Colossians 3:10 (TEV)

871      Tell him slowly: Good Jesus, if I am to be an apostle, and an apostle of apostles, you have to make me very humble. May I know myself. May I know myself and know you. Then I will never lose sight of my nothingness.

875      Lord, help me to be faithful and docile towards you, sicut lutum in manu figuli, like clay in the potter’s hands. In this way it will not be I that live, but you, my Love, who will live and work in me.

Each of us suffers from a delusion about who we are.

Some of them are simply naive, the young kid who thinks they will be the next Tom Brady ( or in my day Roger Staubach), the beautiful lady who thinks she is too fat, the average guy, who believes he is God’s gift to women, or the person that believes they are worthless, and beyond hope.

We each live, caught in the maze of self-delusion.  We don’t really know who we are, or what we are worth, or why we are worth anything.

This is one of the benefits of having a relationship with God; for as we are drawn closer to him, as He transforms us, our identity becomes clearer and clearer. An identity that finds contentment and serenity in knowing we are God’s creation, His masterpiece, the children He loves.

There is a paradox in this quest for self-awareness, in our search for the answer to “Who am I?” It requires an incredible amount of humility to realize the masterpiece (Eph 2:10) that we are.  It requires that we intimately know and are aware of God here, in our lives.  Not just the doctrine of His omnipresence, but the presence of God, the real, active, intimate presence of God in our lives. 

That is what it means to have a full knowledge of God.  We aren’t talking about theological knowledge, but moving with God, dancing with Him, confident of His presence and guidance.  It is then, as He reveals Himself to us, that we realize what our transformation is going to result in when it is complete.  Being in the image of God, not that we will be gods in our own right, but that we will have the qualities He has, especially the quality of being able to love purely.  The transformation happens as God strips away those delusions, as He draws our eyes to Him, This is what Jesus meant when He taught, “²⁵  For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.” Matthew 16:25 (TEV)

Is this easy?  Nah.  We are still going to pick up our self-delusion, dust them off and try them on again.  We will try to convince people are far better than we are.  We are still going to battle what we’ve convinced ourselves of, that we have no worth. Which is why we don’t do this journey alone, it is why we have each other, pointing each other to Christ, reminding each other that God is at work and that He promised all things work for good for those who love God.

He is with you, and the more you know that the more you can cry out to Him, and have the confidence that He listens, answers, does and transforms you!

So relax, stop trying so hard to find yourself, relax and realize He is your God.  AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 3091-3094). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.