Narcissus was a person from greek mythology. We get the term narcissist from his name. You can look up his story, but he was so consumed with his own beauty that when he saw his reflection in a pool, he fell in love with it and drowned. It is so important for us to stay focused on the Lord, not ourselves. When we focus on our own wants and desires, we too drown. We drown out God's full influence in our lives. When we are not fully surrendered, we prevent against being able to have God's fullest and best. Do not be like Narcissus. Don't be in love with yourself. Don't look at the world as your playground. Don't look at it as a place that is meant for you to do what you want and serve yourself. "We are not our own, we were bought for a price" by Jesus. We exist to glorify Him, and when we focus on ourselves, not only are we not glorifying Him, we are preventing ourselves from being in a mindset that allows us to be surrendered. We must never allow ourselves to be a distraction from God.
-Don't justify being a narcissist. Don't say things like, "I'm just thankful for what God has done in me and allowed me to accomplish and I am going to admire those things". No, you can be thankful, and you can praise Him for it....you should do those things...but don't cheapen what God has done in your life by worshiping yourself. Don't cheapen what He has done by allowing yourself to be focused on you. Be thankful and worship Him by seeking to use what He has blessed you with to further His Kingdom. One of the ways we can do that is by having a humble attitude and recognize that everything He's done in us is from Him.
-Don't be in love with me, be in love with God. Don't be in love with God's gifts to me, be in love with Him the person, thankful for His presence. We have this backwards when we are thinking more about the blessings He's given us rather than how we can be a blessing and further His Kingdom. Look at the things God has done as further motivation to worship Him and focus on Him. Don't allow yourself to focus on the blessings in a way which cause you to think about yourself (i.e. look what I did, that was so cool that I was a part of that, I can't wait to share what I accomplished, I want people to talk to me about what I was a part of, etc.)
-It's been said that we are far too easily pleased. We can have so much from God, and yet we settle. He wants to give us so much more.
I have always had a hard time completely understanding what the verse 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. God has been revealing to me through Chuck Swindoll what Paul meant by these verses. It is that divine strength comes when human weakness is evident. When we are weak, Christ moves and shows up when we need Him, making His power that much note clear and obvious in our lives. For these reasons we can "boast in our weaknesses" because it is cool when God shows up.
When I know that I can't do something, or am struggling to do it, I can rely on God and His strength alone to get me through. When I am in a position of weakness and need to rely on God's strength to do something, His strength is that much more evident in my weakness. The important thing to realize though is that I need to always surrender myself to Him and His strength. There will never be a time where I should be relying on myself to accomplish anything. He has blessed me with talents and abilities, and I should work to develop them, but regardless of how competent I become in something, I need to be surrendering all of my efforts to His power and strength, because I am always weak, and He is always strong. Anything I ever accomplish is always directly related to how He chooses to bless my efforts. This is the case for things I am naturally good at, or things I am not good at. His strength and sovereignty is what determines outcomes. I just need to get out of my own way and surrender to Him.
The fact that the outcomes are always directly related to how He chooses to bless my efforts is another form of recognizing that I am weak and He is strong. For instance, I can be the best in teh world at something, but God can always make the results of my efforts less than favourable. I must never look at the results of my efforts being solely dependent upon myself. I must humbly recognize that God always has the final say in all results and circumstances. I should have confidence in my abilities, for this is a way that I can work to perform my best. If I am not confident, I will not perform as well as I will if I am confident; however, I need to always ensure that I am fully aware of the fact that God is in complete control, and it is important that I always humbly fear Him and place myself in a position of weakness, recognizing that I am weak, but HE IS ALWAYS STRONG!
-If I do a sermon on this, have main points with a paragraph explanation for each. Read the explanation, and use that as prompt to then go and expand/explain.
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