Myself, an architect who is afraid of me; / My least sincere friend, my deadliest friend, / My obstacle in every way I go.
Christina Rossetti, in her poem Who Will Deliver Me,[1] twists in her imagination as she searches for a way to save herself from her worst enemy: herself. He begs God to give him the strength to carry his “inalienable weight of concern. “She runs into her room and closes the door, to prevent everyone from coming in with her tedious talk, but she can’t escape the one she hates the most: herself. She’s eager to start life again with a blur and a new account. He begs God to strengthen her against her own “pathetic voice. “
- Maybe with less drama? Still.
- Perhaps.
- Sometimes with even more?.
- Each of us feels betrayed by ourselves.
- “Does our hearts condemn us? (1 John 3:20) and it seems that there is no way to protect our ears from the Inner Accuser East insults the quality of our faith: “Foolish.
- Do you think God will be impressed by your kind of religion?”He thoroughly catalogues our sins.
- From childhood to this week.
- And asks.
- “Can that faith save you?” Or dig to the deepest and most delicate point of our consciousness.
- Find the sin that shames us most.
- And maintains that it is unforgivable and that we are beyond the reach of God’s mercy.
The beauty of the Bible is that it never lets us think that we are alone in our fears Rossetti knew it: the title of his terribly intimate poem comes directly from Paul’s lips in Romans 7. 24, there he considers the madness of his own sin and his inability to love God as he wants?and from the bottom he exclaims, “Who will deliver me?” She followed Paul’s footsteps through the valley of shadow of death.
Paul finds his way out of this dark place: immediately after his desperate cry, he preaches himself. He proclaims, in response to his own question: “Thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord!”(V. 25) and? So now there is no more condemnation for those in Jesus Christ?(8,1) We must learn this pattern: the transition from self-care and self-healing to self-proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.
Paul probably learned this from the habit of praying with the psalms, as David preached frequently. The sons of Kora also have a clear pattern in Psalms 42 and 43, perhaps a single composition of three lamentations. In the first lament (42:1-4), the Psalmist yearns for God and longs to be with him, but he feels distant and even separated from him; in the second (vv. 6-10), feel forgotten of God and oppressed by his enemies, submerged and submerged in waves of tribulation?to the point of experiencing his fear and anguish as a mortal wound to his bones. In the third (43:1-4), he feels rejected by God.
Is every lament followed by a brief but powerful evangelical sermon?The same sermon, repeated in chorus:
Why are you despondent, O my soul, why are you mad at me?Wait for God, who will praise Him again, my help, and my God (Psalm 42. 5, 11, 43. 5).
Watch the change on your own (?My soul?) INDieu (?Wait for God?). Hope rises when the heart turns to look at God. Paul did the same thing, moving away from it? Miserable? That it was in Romans 7:14-24 to God, by Jesus Christ, in verse 25 While the heart probes inside?Adding past sins, remembering past failures, lamenting suffering?, you will only find reason to doubt yourself, discouragement and fear.
We must preach the gospel to each other. This requires us to keep our faces in the Bible, to hear God’s voice, to find our trust in Him and his promises, not in ourselves. What we will discover in the Word is that if our hearts accuse us, God is surely greater than our hearts and knows all things?(1 John 3:20). It is true that it probes our hearts more penetrating than our consciousness can and knows that we are actually worse than we ever imagined.
But despite this, “Did Christ die for us when we were still sinners?”(Romans 5. 8, NVI). When Paul thinks of this in Romans 8. 31-39, he realizes the unthinkable: Is God on our side?Even against our hearts. Paulo warms up with the invigorating light of this news until there is no one else to accuse him; Indeed, the idea that God would turn against us, having given his Son for us, or that the Son would abandon us, while dying for ourselves for us and living to intercede for us?Well, that thought is absolutely impossible.
Like Paulo, Rossetti finally turns around and discovers that
However, there is someone who can hold me back, / Who can relieve me of the overwhelming burden / Break the yoke and free me.
[1] N. T. : “Who will deliver me”, without translation into Portuguese.
By: Kris Lundgaard. © 2013 Ligonier Ministries. Original: Fear of yourself.
This article is part of the October 2013 edition of Tabletalk magazine.
Translation: Vin-cius Silva Pimentel. Review: Vin-cius Musselman Pimentel. © 2015 Faithful Ministérium. All rights reserved. Website: MinisterioFiel. com. br. Original: 7 Deadly Fears: Fear of Itself.