Your Problem’s Not Your Problem

Is this you? You wish your life was better than it is. But there’s this problem. This problem is keeping you from enjoying a better life.

• I’m going through a difficult divorce, and . . .
• Our company downsized. My position was eliminated, and . . .
• My husband won’t stop his gambling, and . . .
• Last night our daughter told us she was gay, and . . .
• My wife maxed out our credit cards, and . . .
• We owe more than $25,000 in back taxes, and . . .
• His biopsy came back positive. Stage four liver cancer, and . . .
• I feel trapped in this marriage, and . . .
• My mother and I have not spoken for twelve years, and . . .
• My boyfriend refuses to marry me. I’m pregnant, and . . .

But your problem’s not your problem. Your problem is your flesh.

Since childhood you’ve received messages about yourself.

Some were positive, “You are such a pretty little girl.” Or, “My what a smart boy you are.” Or, “You can be anything you want to be.”

Some were negative. “You can’t play baseball. You won’t make the team.” Or, “You’re not smart enough to go to college!” Or, “Why don’t you make good grades like your sister?”

Whether they were positive or negative, you believed them all. You learned how to deal with life and formed your identity based on what other people told you about yourself. You needed an identity to meet everyone’s two basic needs: 1) to be loved and accepted; and 2) to feel worthy and valuable.

God’s plan is for Him to meet those needs. But until we learn our true identity in Christ, and learn to live out of that identity, we try to meet those needs with our own resources. That’s called living in your flesh. And that’s the problem.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20.