Have You Found Yourself?

I*m trying to find myself was an expression used a few years ago by young people as an excuse for not getting a job or going to school. The fact is that most of them were losing themselves. They were hiding from responsibility. They were stalling and wasting time. It was an attempt to make it sound noble to have no goals or ambitions.

I am reminded of a phrase in a country western song: Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places. Those young people were trying to find themselves in all the wrong places. They didn*t know what they were looking for or where to look for it. Most never found it. They were unwittingly looking for the worthwhile direction that they could only find for themselves in Christ. They can only become new, complete and purposeful persons in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Colossians 2:9-10: For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Without Christ they can only find part of something and they will lose even that partial thing again. The way to find yourself is to lose yourself to Christ.

Mark 8:35: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it.

Here are a few things that men become and find when they lose (give) their lives to Christ:

Hebrews 3:14: For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

2 Peter 1:4: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Hebrews 12:10: For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Colossians 1:12: Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Hebrews 3:1: Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

1 Corinthians 9:10: Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

1 Peter 5:1: The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

1 Peter 4:13: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

2 Timothy 1:8: Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Matthew 5:11: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Care to discuss Have You Found Yourself? with Ron?

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