Be True to Yourself

Wow, now there’s a phrase you can take about 18 million different ways!

When people say this, what exactly are they asking?

If you enjoy lying—be a liar?
If you are lousy at math—don’t be an accountant?
If you can sing like a canary—join the praise and worship team?
If you are an angry person—become a cage fighter?
If you feel wrestless after 40—trade in your wife and find a younger model?

I mean, what in the world is this gobally goop?

To me it has become so over used you might as well lump it in the same category as the following:

There’s someone out there just for you—find your soul mate!
Follow your heart
Trust your instincts

I won’t even dignify the soul-mate thing. That’s so ‘Oprah’ I get a nauseous feeling every time I hear the word. Or is it two words?

Who cares?

But these others?

Follow your heart
Trust your instincts

The Bible tells us that we can’t even know our own hearts. Check here if you think I made that one up. In fact, I believe God warns against the simple-minded approach to life that just says, “follow your own heart.” Really, He does. I’ll show you…

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. Jeremiah 13:10

And our ‘instincts’?

Last time I checked it was animals who lived by instinct and man was supposed to be a little better than that?

BTW, as you might have guessed, God covered this in Bible 101 as well. Check it out.

Romans 1:18-28,

¹⁸ But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.^i]’>[i] ¹⁹ They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. ²⁰ For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

²¹ Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. ²² Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. ²³ And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. ²⁵ They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. ²⁶ That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. ²⁷ And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

²⁸ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.

That right there is basic “living by your instincts.” It’s pretty ugly, huh?

Sounds like good ole, “Look out for number one, be true to yourself, all that matters is that I’m happy,” and a whole host of other self absorbed life philosophies are pretty much a bust as far as God is concerned.

So we shouldn’t be true to ourselves?

I didn’t say that.

Or did I?