In J.I. Packer’s excellent introduction to John Owen’s enlightening book, Sin and Temptation, he pens the following: “Owen taught me how to understand myself as a Christian and live before God in a morally and honest way, without pretending either to be what I am not or not to be what I am.” He goes on to say, “It is not too much to say that God used him to save my sanity.” Packer says that Owen helped to make him a realist in every area of his life.
Aren't the two things mentioned above the problem in most of our lives today? That is, do we not spend a lifetime pretending to be what we are not? Or go to the other extreme living a life of constant denial as to who we really are? The latter invariably leads to the former. It is then we enter the actors' studio so to speak. I spent most of my early Christian life in this quandary. The Scripture the Spirit used to help me out of this is Romans 9:20-21, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
“Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.”
(Isa.44:2)
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