Thou shalt not call thyself a jerk

We all know that we have no right to call someone a jerk, but we do not so easily realize that it is an evil thing to speak in such a way against ourselves. I listened to Art Katz’ sermon on Jeremiah was impressed with his message: We are not at liberty to kick ourselves, though we may think it deserved.Here I summarize some of Katz’ points: “Before we talk about external persecution, we must look internally and see that we may be our own persecutors – when we languish in self-contempt. That is a soul sickness, like a plague. Life will be a life of fretful kicking because we missed the point: We do not know or believe what Christ has wrought at the cross. There are times for shame and remorse because there are grounds for it. But we cannot continue to rue our failures. What God forgives we must put under the blood. Cast them away as far as the east from the west. Christ does. To be saved is to be delivered. Self-condemnation is a curse, a destructive trap that keeps us from fulfilling our God-given calling. Think of Peter and Paul. Ruminating over their past sins would have crippled their apostolic calling. But they were free from the self-concious absorption on their past failures. Paul, once a murderer, mentioned his past sins only once, and then he went on in his mission.Why is it that we can more easily forgive others, but not ourselves? Why do we take luxury in berating ourselves, or find a perverse delight in ruminating over our past failures? Maybe it is because the “self” still rules. Maybe we have a standard for ourselves that even Christ did not have for us. Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.” He says to us: Neither condemn yourself. Our lives will always be wrought with many stumblings and failures, but we cannot linger over them. We must move on with child-like trust and confidence that Christ’s life is working in us.O. Chambers” said,” Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. …The complete life is the life of a child. When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong. It is the sick man who knows what health is. The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he IS the will of God. … If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously. [ie, it gets worse] Jesus says, “Come unto me and I will give you rest, Christ consciousness will take the place of SELF-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes he establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself. “My Utmost for his Highest, Aug 20We must trust that God has the power to give us a check if we begin to wander, or give us a dis-ease, or dis-peace. When our rest begins to go away then we can ask, “Why is this, Lord?” A healthy person doesn’t continuously take his temperature to make sure that he is healthy. In fact, he isn’t even conscious about health. Only when he is ill does he consciously think about health. If we are at REST in Christ we will not be consciously self-conscious. We will not be derailed over our mistakes and failures. 'Beware of anything that is going to split up your oneness with Him and make you see yourself separately." (O. Chambers Aug 19) Diane

Good Post! :-) I often times come down really hard on myself and have fallen into the trap of speaking very negatively about me. What an eye opener this post has been!

How about an occasional self-aimed 'you dummy'? :-)

Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue...Thanks much Diane. I always stumble over this 'paradox'. :knockedout: Wonderful post.MC

Let’ think a bit more about this subject, and consider how society perpetuates our bad habits:How about this song about an important fictitious deity in our culture. "You better watch out, you better not pout...he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake,He knows if you've been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake.." Or this old Sunday School song. Think how such words foster self-absorption rather than quiet Christ-centered trust. "O be careful little hands what you do....for the Father up above is looking down in love....O be careful little eyes what you see..little ears what you hear...little feet where you walk...etc." The following words imply something quite different in view of the fact that I can sin deeply "merely" by refusing to REST in Christ and his glorious atonement for me. "My eyes are on all their ways;they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes." [Jer. 16:17].Diane

Excellent post for me!! One of my faults is I'm very hard on myself spiritually sometimes. I felt a release when reading this post. Just the other day I was swimming in self-condemnation and the Lord spoke to me early in the morning, and told me to get up out of that water I was swimming in...I didnt condemn you!

Just the other day I was swimming in self-condemnation and the Lord spoke to me early in the morning, and told me to get up out of that water I was swimming in...I didnt condemn you!I share this very same experience all too often - feeling pulled down into a vortex of self-condemnation (over the silliest things), and that's why I wrote the article. I feel that it is the Lord admonishing me and encouraging me to trust in his forgiveness. Diane

That's funny! Been there too. :-)

I am guilty of this dom

The Lord was just talking to me about this very issue this morning!! Wow! Also yesterday in My Utmost for His Highest (entitled "The Initiative Against Despair"):"Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosoom of Christ, and go out into the irresistable future with Him...never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action..."Condemnation is actually a lack of faith in what Christ can do--"therefore, there is now NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus..."Thanks Diane. Lord, help us all to walk in this truth!By the way, which sermon by Katz was that? I'd like to listen to it. Is it here on sermonindex?Phebe

By the way, which sermon by Katz was that? I'd like to listen to it. Is it here on sermonindex? Yes it is here in the downloadables, and is actually one of two parts - on Jeremiah. Jeremiah - Prophet of the Last DaysThis sermon is 1 1/2 hours. In it Art Katz expounds on the propehtic calling of Jeremiah. The first part of the message deals with issues of self-contempt, where I drew my thoughts. Had Jeremiah struggled with this, he could have been derailed completely. After all, his God-given message was very counter-culture. And the fact that no one took him seriously could have tempted him to believe that he was a failure. The message is worth listening to. Art Katz, with his incredible gift of using words, gets the message across much more powerfully than I could ever do. Diane

"Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosoom of Christ, and go out into the irresistable future with Him...never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action..."Condemnation is actually a lack of faith in what Christ can do--"therefore, there is now NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus..."Phebebird, you have added some very penetrating points to this theme. I will take some time to meditate on them. Diane

this is a good one, i can picture putting this on my life and walking in it but it seems a bit extreme to be regarding ourselves as too fragile for repremand, how would we ever learn? wouldn't that mean forsaking the rest of the law? i love how God did put his sun on the line for us, not in a brutal way at all but oh so thankful because it says you're free to choose or reject God and in choosing him your slate is wiped clean, and we hold communion in remeberance where songs like amazing grace are sung, this is when you allow yourself to dwell on the revelation of what really happened 2006 years ago. taking in the full force of what communion is about. Is it the only real practised acknowledgement our church gives to how we were once so guilty we had no hope?where im going with this is not only the thought of provision and relying on that while living in the day given, its also our ability to mourn.given that you choose what your emotions tell you, and that theres a time and a place for everything and every activity under the sun,going through trials and actually snapping yourself back to reality in a harsh way can sometimes be all you really needed.infact after having a coffee with a friend of mine i went with her as she picked up another friend and dropped us at church so that we could help set up for the meeting held there tonight, we hung out for a while before we were able to get into the room we needed to set up and as we got there we found the band in practise. also the things we planned to use were nowhere to be found. we spent a good deal of time trying to grab anything from anywhere to get the job done and we ended up having all of 5 minutes left to actually do our work and then place all the things we didnt have time to use, back. the result was pitiful and bland. i was kinda ticked off that when people are asked to help out and nothing's organised well, it feels like a waste and i felt pretty let down, can you believe i actually wanted to cry? my boyfriend walked in with the crowd for the night and i saw him and amidst 'comfort hugs' tried to tell him how dissapointed i was. you know what he did next? he looked me straight in the eye and said 'you need to snap out of it and let it go' he didnt say it in a soft voice either. but instead of arguing about how i felt i listened because i was acting stupidly and i let it go. it didnt, even for a second after that, ruin my night. on the way home i said to him, 'could you maybe have been a bit nicer with the way you said that' and he said to me 'on too many occasions you have just let little things like that spoil your night and you've created a bad atmosphere around you i didnt want this night to be the same'.the only reason his words helped me turn that night from emotional to God-encountering is because i chose to listen to him and let it go without a second thought. its those same spur of the moment harsh choices of 'y'know what im just going to snap out of this crap attitude' and telling yourself sternly to just stop before you do anything stupid; that pays off later.i dont know wether you've heard of him but Robert Ferguson preached a message about the power of the toungue and how things you say can make or break you and the people around you. he talked about the power of speech and verbal confession and how pulling yourself into line by actually talking to yourself can have a very powerful effect. what comes out of your mouth needs to be guarded because you know what it says: if a man can keep his toungue in check he can keep his whole body in check, james chapter 2 preaches this subject im sure you'll find the above quote in there too...i know its taking a real turn from the original intentions of the thread but i hope you dont mind, i just had it on my heart and am learning from these words too.

it seems a bit extreme to be regarding ourselves as too fragile for reprimand,Holly, you add some important thoughts here. Yes, we need to distinguish clearly the difference between admitting our wrongs, and beating ourselves up. They are two opposites. One brings us closer to Christ and each other, the other brings us further from Christ and each other. Knowing the difference can be tricky. I believe that when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, he doesn’t keep on beating us up, nor does he encourage us to do so. Instead he draws us into the beauty of Christ’s redemptive mercy. He cleans us, he sets us free. And in that freedom, there is no room for self-focused bashing. After all, Christ is the center, not us. The experience you shared was all too real to me. I’ve even had night mares exactly like that – wires all tangled up, broken instruments, lost music, people late… chaos. I think for me it may have been a control issue – fear of things being out of control.In your situation it looks like God received the glory through the event – because YOU were set free of a faulty desire, a faulty perspective. And what goes on in the heart is far more important than the event. I’ve had to learn that, and still am working on it. Thanks for sharing that. Diane