Catechism: Embracing God's Good Creation预览

Our culture loves solutions. We’re in constant pursuit of the quickest diet, the most effective energy drink, and any tip or trick to “fix” our appearance, performance, and even our personality. We can’t escape the targeted ads that seem to read our minds, offering us options to improve our style and appearance and selling us on the promise that we will achieve happiness once we possess their products.

But what if God’s design wasn’t for us to fix our own flaws? 

Whether it’s a physical impairment, a personality quirk, an uncontrollable circumstance, or something else, what if God had a plan for the very real brokenness that comes with those things?

And what if that plan involves using and transforming them for God’s glory and our own good instead of just erasing our problems? 

Believing this doesn’t mean we pretend our flaws don’t exist or that we downplay how painful they are. 

It means we can acknowledge our own weaknesses and flaws without despair. In all of our brokenness, we can submit ourselves to God and trust that God in His great grace will work through us and empower us to live according to His purpose for our lives.

It means we don’t engage in a battle to hide our weaknesses. Instead, we see them as places God’s strength is on display. We admit them and entrust them to God, confident that His power will be at work in us. 

And we look forward to the day when Jesus returns and gives us resurrected, glorified bodies that are totally free from the brokenness of sin.

Read 2 Corinthians 12:5-10

Reflection Questions

1. How does the world respond to our flaws? What does it push us to do about them? How is God’s response different? In what ways is it freeing? In what ways is it challenging?
2. Have you experienced God’s strength on display in your struggles? Have you seen this play out in anyone else’s life? Take some time to thank Him for His strength and plan for your weaknesses. If you’re struggling to see this, ask God to show you how He wants to use your weaknesses and flaws for His glory and your good. 
3. Many of us feel trapped by our self-conscious thoughts, and we’re constantly worried about our flaws and how others perceive us. Ask God for His help in moving from a place of self-consciousness to self-awareness, where we don’t live in denial of our weaknesses, but where we trust God to work in and through them. Ask God to shift your awareness to others and ways you can share His love with them.