Do you feel like God is a million miles away? Do you pray or cry out to Him and nothing appears to happen, or it seems like no one is listening? Have thoughts crossed your mind that God has abandoned you, leaving you on your own? We all tend to feel like this at some point in our lives. Many wrestle often with these feelings. But how seldom it occurs to us that we may have put ourself into this position. The “I” and “me” in us or the “inner self” and “flesh” becomes exalted and emphasized over God. As a result, our actions may have actually pushed God away from us.
…when it comes to knowing, understanding, or having any kind of closeness with God, our inner self can become the elephant in the room.
The Inner Self: Our Personal Elephant
People sometimes use the phrase that there’s “an elephant in the room.” This refers to a significant situation or debatable concern that clearly exists, but it is probably best for everyone involved to just ignore or not mention it. And when it comes to knowing, understanding, or having any kind of closeness with God, our inner self can become the elephant in the room.
The Battle for Sacred Space
Simply put, God and our inner self cannot share the same space. Either we yield to God and make space for Him in our heart, or we push Him out of the picture, leaving us on our own to solve problems that are greater than we can handle. If we take the “elephant in the room” phrase literally, it’s just as applicable, because even a baby elephant takes a considerable amount of area, as it grows there is less and less space for anyone else in the room. Eventually, it becomes all elephant and nothing else! In a similar manner, if we continue to feed and nurture our inner self, it’ll grow to the point where it dominates all.
It means refraining from thoughts like, ‘What am I going to do today?’ or ‘What are you doing for me?’ or ‘How will I solve the problem’ or ‘Everything here is mine.’
Denying Self to Follow Christ
Jesus “…said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). This doesn’t mean performing self-flagellation, penance, or any other form of physical abuse and punishment on our body. Instead, it is the acknowledgement that it is “not my will, but Thine” (Luke 22:42 emphasis added) that matters. It means refraining from thoughts like, ‘What am I going to do today?’ or ‘What are you doing or are going to do for me?’ or ‘How will I solve the problem’ or ‘Everything here is mine.’
The Spirit’s Victory Over Self
When we yield ourself to God, we allow His Son to work though us by His Spirit so that His will can be accomplished in our life. We are then able to say, “I [self] am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I [self] live; yet not I [self], but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). Our inner self is not interested in what God desires—in fact, the inner self doesn’t really care about anyone else desires. Our inner self only wants to please itself.
Nourishing Spirit, Starving Self
God wants us to stop feeding our inner self with our own desires and the pleasures of this world, and start nourishing our spirit with His Word and worship of Him. After we give our life to God, our spirit’s main concern is not to please self—it seeks to please God. It will also have an unselfish, sacrificial love for others. It naturally wants to uphold what Jesus said, “…as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).
No matter what we do on our own, we can never make our self into what we think we should be—simply because our focus is primarily on our self.
The Distance Our Inner Self Creates
As long as we continue to encourage, exalt and glorify our inner self, we will not be able to experience the love and intimacy of God in our hearts. He will forever be distant to us, because we have not given any place for Him to live within us. Instead, it is all about us. No matter what we do on our own, we can never make our self into what we think we should be—simply because our focus is primarily on our self.
Breaking Free from Self-Dominance
Therefore, it’s time to stop ignoring that smug elephant in the room. If we will give our heart over to Jesus so He can work in and through us, we will not continue to strive to please self. Denying our inner self will cause it to shrink, until it is no longer big enough to overcome and control us. Then we will find that as we “Draw [near] to God, …He will draw [near] to [us]” (James 4:8), because there is no longer an elephant called “inner self” crowding Him out of the room.
Oh, the bitter pain and sorrow
-Theodore Monod (1836-1921)
That a time could ever be,
When I proudly said to Jesus,
“All of self, and none of Thee.”
Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on th’ accursed tree,
And my [longing] heart said faintly,
“Some of self, and some of Thee.”
Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Brought me lower while I whispered,
“Less of self, and more of Thee.”
Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered:
“None of self, and all of Thee.”
[Additional image credits: Featured image (when applicable) by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay; Opening photo by Renan Lima on Pexels]
