Trust Him with All of Yourself: The Good and the Bad

Lisa K Gomez-Osborn — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:30:00 -0400

I recently gave a homework assignment to one of my clients. It was a blank piece of paper with one question: "Who am I?" I explained that I wanted her to describe who she thought she was, e.g. wife, mother, creative, encouraging, successful. Along with the positive aspects, the exercise also gave her an opportunity to address the negative parts she wanted to change. After the exercise with my client, I decided to do the homework assignment myself to see if there was anything negative I needed to address in my life.

After completing my list, I noticed I hadn't written any negative characteristics. This realization bothered me. Like all of us, there are plenty of less-than-positive aspects (messy, impatient or forgetful) in my life too. But I wondered why none of them made it onto my list? Was I turning a blind eye to my own issues?

Anxious thoughts ran through my mind. "Am I a Pollyanna?" The thought mortified me. "Oh Lord," I prayed, "don't let me be a Pollyanna Christian!"

In all honesty, I don't want to be blind to my own shortcomings but instead aware of where my character is tarnished. By surrendering myself to God, and praying for his grace and power to overcome those parts of me that are inconsistent with godly character, I trust all of me --the good and bad parts -- to Him, hoping for change where I need it.

It's not easy to address our character weeknesses. And I'm not suggesting that anyone berate themselves over them. What I am saying is that we all need His Spirit in order to change the things within us that are unholy.

That's a pretty tall order. I know. Yet this trust, trusting God to correct our weeknesses, is a critical part of the work of the Holy Spirit. If we refuse to acknowledge our need for change, then it's very probable we won't change. I don't want that for my life, or for yours.

Like my tendency for impatience, I didn't put any of my negative characteristics on that homework assignment because those weren't the areas I wanted to address. After all, who wants to think about how impatient they are? But, if I ignored my impatience, would it remain a part of my character? Perhaps not always, but certainly for much longer than it needs to. The problem comes when we confuse self-condemnation with self-awareness.

When we don't trust God with the areas of our life that needs help, we miss the blessing of having the Holy Spirit transform our character and replace our ungodliness with His grace. It's not necessary to pick apart every flaw in our character. But if we're vulnerable to His Spirit, then He'll do the work of transformation within us that is impossible on our own.

We don't have to be ashamed or fearful about our negative parts either. All we need to do is shout our helplessness to Him in prayer and experience the transforming miracle that takes place when we humble ourselves and trust Him with our secrets. And by daring to be transparent with Him -- trusting Him with all of ourselves -- we will radically change and improve our relationship with the Holy Spirit, the keeper of our trust and faith.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:5)

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Trust Him with All of Yourself: The Good and the Bad