Do you ever get discouraged because you can’t seem to do anything right? You can’t cheer up your Loved One, you can’t heal them, you can’t even be a ‘good’ Watcher?
You read blog posts and Bible passages about loving selflessly and encouraging others and being joyful – and you try, you really do, but you never quite succeed.
Everyone around you seems to be able to hold their life together and love others as well – and you lose your temper daily, are often discouraged, and sometimes wonder why you’re even here at all.
It’s easy to forget we are Watchers and become frustrated because we aren’t Jesus.
Watchers, we are not Jesus
What does acting like Jesus look like?
Hold on, doesn’t the Bible tell us we should be like Jesus? Isn’t it something every Christian ought to aspire towards?
Yes, and yet there’s a difference between wanting to be like Jesus and becoming discouraged because we are not the Jesus someone else needs.
When we try and fill the role of Jesus in someone else’s life, we:
- Try and be everything for them. Their sole happiness, their ever-strong support, their hope in times of trouble.
- We become disheartened because we very quickly realise we are ‘not enough’.
- We hate ourselves because we cannot save our Loved Ones
- We look around and see pain and suffering and feel like it’s all our fault.
- Mistakes become monumental and unforgivable. We need to save our Loved Ones, and how can we do that if we keep failing them?
Why is it wrong?
- We are not Jesus.
- If we try and be Jesus for someone else there is a very real danger that we will prevent them from ever knowing and trusting the real Jesus. This has cosmic consequences.
- When we believe we are Jesus we stop asking Him for help. We crucify ourselves and belittle His (much greater) sacrifice. This is wrong on so many levels.
- We can never be Jesus. We can never be perfect – and so we deceive ourselves.
How does it happen?
- We lose perspective and begin to believe that Jesus isn’t quite enough, so we have to be.
- We spend less time drawing strength from Jesus and more time hunting within ourselves for our “innate capability”.
- We are overwhelmed by suffering and believe we can’t afford to waste energy asking Jesus for help – the only option is to plow forward on our own.
- Our Loved One expects a lot from us. They believe we can be everything to them… and eventually we begin to believe it too.
- We love our Loved One and want to help them… and we don’t stop to remember that Jesus promises to do this.
Some truths
- Jesus is enough. Enough for the world, and enough for our Loved One. We do them no service by keeping them from experiencing Him completely.
- We are called to be like Jesus, but to think we can save someone else is wrong. Only Jesus saves and to think otherwise is ridiculous.
- The less time we spend with Jesus the more important we grow in our own eyes. It is only in the presence of our holy and loving God that we see how little we really are.
- It can be a terrifying thing to admit that we are not in control, that we are not perfect, that we fail daily. It is also remarkably freeing! Our sins are not insurmountable. In the cross there is forgiveness and hope. We can be gentle with ourselves because He is gentle with us.
What can we do?
- We need to admit that we cannot save our Loved One. We are incapable of perfection and incapable of satisfying anyone.
- We need to repent of our pride, of that little voice that whispers, “perhaps if I just try hard enough… perhaps tomorrow I’ll get it right.”
- We can spend time with Jesus even when we feel like it’s wasted time. In doing this we demonstrate faith and trust. We show that we believe He is worth it.
- We can talk about Jesus – with our Loved One, with everyone! The more we marvel and exclaim over His power, the more real it becomes to us (and the less we focus on ourselves).
- We can tell our Loved One that we cannot save them. We cannot be everything to them – but Jesus can.
To conclude
My friends, there is nothing better than to want to be like Jesus. It is our calling, our vocation. Yet when we try and replace Jesus in someone’s life, we are inviting heartbreak! Let us never forget that we are Watchers and not Jesus.
//have you ever slipped into thinking that it is your job to save someone else? Has this caused problems for you?
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