How God's Love Changes Us: Part 2 - Overcoming Pride & Insecurity Sample

All good things can become idols, just like not-so-good things. Although the commitments our inner elder brother makes are often quite virtuous, they can be used to hide from intimacy rather than pursue it. Whenever we feel abandoned and betrayed, we tend to lash out rather than sit with the pain of the absence of the one we love. If we reside in the realm of the elder, unaddressed feelings of abandonment and betrayal can have more power over us than we realize.

We abandon ourselves with regularity because of our fear, arrogance, and judgment. We must offer unconditional love to our elder brothers just as much as to our runaway sons. We must bring our elder brothers back into relationship with a heavenly Father who has a special place in his heart for those who are abandoned. Confession of our own pain, anger, contempt, and envy must happen before we can be free enough to forgive and to open our hearts to love again.

Each of us is a lovely, complex mess. The church is made of people, which means that the body of Christ is a beautiful mess as well. We are all stumbling toward God, attempting to become more like Christ. The elder brother is much like all of us: within him is a rich glory and goodness that go hand and hand with his deep depravity. Glory and depravity are always two sides of the same coin, meaning the same thing that makes us glorious is also where we most likely harbor our deepest sin.

The scandalous message of the gospel is that God loves us despite our  self-righteousness, entitlement, and greed and invites us into relationship and resurrection. Transformation begins as we surrender our addiction and entitlement and make our way toward confession and reconciliation. 

How do your glory and depravity interplay? Have you made peace with this reality? If not, how might you move toward recognizing and accepting this dichotomy?

You've completed Overcoming Pride and Insecurity which is Part 2 of How God's Love Changes Us: three reading plans based on The Prodigal Son Parable. All three plans are based on Andrew Bauman's book Stumbling Toward Wholeness. Learn more about the book here.