Ziggy is one of my favorite newspaper cartoons. In one scene Ziggy is laying quietly on a psychiatrist’s couch. The psychiatrist looks at him and says, “I don’t believe you have an inferiority complex. From what I’ve seen, you’ve got plenty to feel inferior about!” Ouch! When someone has a poor opinion of us, we’d like to think that they are misinformed, or just being mean. Either way, we really don’t want to be around them.
Did you know there are ways that God wants us to see how bad we are? We tend to avoid people who try to make us feel inferior, but we must be careful. When our Creator has something to say about us, we’d better pay attention.
Think about it, could feeling awful about ourselves ever be a good thing? The answer is “Yes.” Let’s look at a story in the Bible that will show how that could happen. The story is about Paul (born with the name Saul) in Acts 9. It is a great example of how feeling bad can turn out to be very good.
Paul was a very gifted young man. He was able to win a coveted position as the personal student of Gamaliel, the most respected teacher in Israel. He spoke Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic fluently. Paul was a highly respected rising star among the religious leaders. He must have felt very good about himself.
While Paul was still a young man, he actually had a hand in making Stephen the first Christian martyr (see Acts 7). Paul’s zeal for getting rid of this new religion, that many were calling, “The Way” (because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”), was extraordinary. He wasn’t content to just chase Christians out of Jerusalem. He was willing to go to great lengths to hunt down Christ’s followers (both men and women) and put them in prison. In fact, he got a blanket permission from the High Priest to travel 130 miles north to Damascus to arrest any Christians he could find there. Paul was a mover and a shaker.
On that journey, though, God came to Paul and really made him feel bad. Before Paul could arrest any Christians in Damascus, Jesus stopped him on a dusty road just outside of that city. This is how the Bible describes it: “. . . suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting’ ” (Acts 9:3-5). Paul really felt bad. He didn’t think that this Jesus was really alive until he saw Him face to face.
Years later Paul looked back on his life and remembered that he used to be, “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor” and a sinner who was, “foremost of all” (1 Timothy 1:13,15). When Paul was confronted with his sin, he took it very hard. Unfortunately, though, that bad news wasn’t just for Paul. The Bible says that there is bad news for all of us. In God’s eyes every one of us are helpless, ungodly, sinners, who started life as enemies of God (Romans 5:6-10).
Paul discovered, though, that all that bad news about himself was a good thing because “the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:13). God made Paul feel bad in order to show him what he needed most: God’s grace and forgiveness. The awfulness of his sin wasn’t bigger than God’s ability to forgive. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20)
God’s grace is so amazing that He is willing to do more than just forgive our sin. For those who trust Him and turn from their sins, God also covers them with Christ’s perfect righteousness. That’s how we can be “… holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4)
You may be experiencing something painful in your life right now. Here is the good news: God wants to use your pain so you can discover the joy of being at peace with Him. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). I hope that you will let your pain lead you to Christ’s love. If you embrace the forgiveness that Christ offers, you have an eternal joy that will far outlast any pain you may be in now.
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