THE NEW AGE FINDS ITS HOPE FROM WITHIN

 

One New Age respondent wrote:

“The alternative is to obtain our self worth and self esteem from somewhere outside ourselves in which case it is not real since by definition self worth and self esteem come from within.”

I responded:

“To find “self-worth and self-esteem” from within is to futilely search for a non-existent unicorn. Instead, honesty and self-examination inform us that everything within is corrupted, as Scripture abundantly indicates. Therefore, to believe otherwise is to engage in costly self-deception, which leads to arrogance. Why? Because it is a refusal to see the garbage within and to cry out to our only possible hope – the Messiah!

You will find that you become increasingly self-righteous. Here are some of the symptoms:

·       Looking down on others

·       Finding it harder to connect to others, even our wives and children

·       Taking criticism becomes more difficult

·       Defeats are intolerable – They undermine the lofty edifice we have constructed in our honor.

·       Self-Obsession

If the self is the source of our hope, the status of ourselves will obsess and depress us. Instead, fixation upon God takes us out of ourselves – our failures, rejections, and insecurities – and places our attentions where they belong, on a God who is our sufficiency (2 Corinthians 3:5).

Eventually, arrogance, pride, and self-righteousness – they are a package deal – will kill us:

·       Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

·       Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

·       Proverbs 16:18-19  Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.

·       Isaiah 13:11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

Meanwhile, when we derive our self-worth from our eternal relationship with our Creator and Redeemer, we derive the freedom to see ourselves as we are, to be transparent, and laugh in the midst of our insufficiencies. Instead of being invested in ourselves, we are invested in our Savior, where our investment is safe.”