Masquerade

What are we hiding from? Who are we striving to be? Why are we pretending?

I can remember wearing different "masks" in high school so that I could be part of different worlds.  At home, I had a "mask".  At school I had a "mask".  At youth group I had a "mask".  Here are some of the problems that come with having so many masks.

1).  It's hard to remember who you really are.  As long as we continually strive to be the type of people that others expect us to be, we will never be the person that Christ created us to be.  That leads to my second...

2).  We don't live out the life we were blessed to live.  As long as my goal is to live my life in a way that keeps me in right standing with so many people around me, I will probably be disobeying Jesus at some point along the way.

3).  No one ever really gets to know you.  As long as I'm faking things along the way, I am never showing anyone around me the real me.  The problem with that: I never truly experience true friendship/fellowship with anyone around me because they never meet me.

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong." — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10


Here are some things that I think we need to do in order to get rid of our masks:
A).  Surrender everything to Christ.
B).  Understand and accept the fact that you are loved completely by Jesus, just as you are.
C).  Accept the truth that Jesus has a new life planned out for you.  The truth about this: it's a better life than you ever thought possible and probably looks a lot different than the one that you're living right now.