One thing that every person wants is to be whole. We want to feel confident in who we are and the purpose for our lives. Christians and people of all ages ask the questions: Who am I? What is my purpose in life? What am I called to? If I'm called to something clearly, can I do it effectively? Can I bear witness to the glory of God in a way that truly impacts the world? Does my life have meaning and will my future hold all that God has for me?
Let’s examine an oft-overlooked passage of scripture. It’s going to seem strange at first in this conversation about identity, but I think it’s very important, far more than we may realize. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:25-26, ESV). The inside of our cups hold sin but also brokenness. Not always but often, our sins are methods of compensating for our wounds rather than taking our brokenness to God for him to heal.
Now I want to ask you a different question. What does God feel about you? Many of us live up here in our mind, but these things are in our heart. We can quote scriptures that God loves and accepts us, and we’re forgiven and cleansed in the beloved. We can believe these things in our minds, but our heart is telling us a different story.
If we don’t see God correctly or trust him, we won’t allow him into the deepest parts of our hearts that need healing and cleansing. We won’t let God clean the inside of the cup.
Someone who has allowed Jesus to start working on the inside of the cup can go through horrible external situations and still be unmoved in their faith because their identity is truly in God. Let’s start allowing Jesus to examine the inside of our cup. Let’s trust him enough to allow him to start lifting painful, broken things out of us and restoring us so that we have room for the peace and power he’s longing to put inside us. We all want that, right?