Hello dear friends. Here I am here for another week. This time, writing from a coffee shop in São Paulo next to a brother of the faith. I was telling you about how God was telling me a lot about vulnerability this week. And through a preaching by Myles Munroe that this brother showed me, I began to reflect on one important point and that complemented all the things the Lord was telling me.
Preaching talked about how each person is unique and irreplaceable. And how valuable we are only when we are rare. Diamonds are expensive because they are rare, costume jewelry is cheap because they are common. However, sometimes we put it in our heads that we need to be like other people (such as great leaders or the coolest and most handsome guy in our community) to reach out. We lose our rarity by trying to be like them. In fact, if we have a model of man to follow, it must be Jesus Christ. He is original, unique and irreplaceable, as we should be.
You may not be understanding the link between vulnerability and rarity. But I hope the Holy Spirit speaks to you, even though my words are flaws and my thoughts confused.
I believe there are three points of vulnerability that can help us to become more and more rare. And independent people from the attempt to become equal to someone who is not Christ.
What is vulnerability?
Among the various meanings for the word, I want to sign two. They are: to being attacked and fragile. To be vulnerable here in the Christian life is to get rid of protections for fear of judgment. It is to avoid raising a wall and a barrier in front of us to protect ourselves from situations that hurt us. It is to rely totally and surrender your defenses, to be totally subject to be attacked. The result however, is not an attack, it is God entering freely in your heart from your sincerity.
Personal Vulnerability
The first point I see as crucial to getting rid of these barriers is personal vulnerability. Being honest with yourself is essential and is the starting point. It is recognizing your mistakes and letting the victimization aside. Not wanting to find a guilty for your suffering, but always understanding yout part in history.
Eph 4: 1 “Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, beg you to walk as worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love” (KJV)
When Paul quotes humility, meekness, and longsuffering to support each other in love, he basically says that it is necessary:
- To recognize who you really are, without trying to be something more or something less (false humility);
- To calm down through your own knowledge about your weakness (meekness);
- To know how to bear yourself and your weaknesses (longsuffering).
Only with this you can live with others in love. Being honest with yourself breaks your first barriers. And teaches you to understand where you are or who you are, to make it easier to understand where you want to go and what are your life purposes.
Vulnerability to others
Unlocking the first step of sincerity with us, we must then begin to be sincere with others around us.
Jm 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another to be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (NIV)
James makes clear in his letter that there is a great importance in the confession of sins to others. Obviously, he emphasizes that this confession must be made to the righteous. We know how difficult it is to open up about things in our personal lives that hurt and hurt us from the inside. However, being honest with yourself and understanding the difficulty, it will be easier to find someone who is trustworthy and who is on a firm walk with Jesus. It may be your pastor, leader or brother of faith, as is Pedro Martins, my friend to whom I referred at the beginning of this text. When I have difficulties and sins, I like to appeal to just people like him. And some others who know that they can help me by basing themselves on the Word of God.
Of course I’m not telling you to open up with all possible people without a filter. In the continuation of the text of Ephesians 4, verse 14, Paul tells us to be sincere precisely so as not to be carried by the winds of different doctrines at all times.
In fact, I saw many times disciple-makers giving wrong advice because they were in their good intentions, but based on what they heard and the disciples were not sincere. The result of this is the ineffectiveness of the counsels and the non-evolution of our faith.
Vulnerability to God
This is a set of the first two steps. By executing them, you end up being vulnerable with God Himself. Nothing has the same value as his secret, his prayer in the closed room, speaking directly to him. But sometimes, after we sin, we feel so dirty that we do not find the strength to draw near to God. So the above points are important.
In the moment of difficulty, understand that by breaking the barriers and being sincere with yourself, with others and with God Himself, the Father’s love begins to flow freely within you and it becomes easier to see the power of God.
2 Co 12:10 “Therefore I delight in weaknesses, reproaches, needs, persecutions, afflictions for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong” (KJV).
Of course, following the Bible itself, we should not sin too much to see much of God’s grace, this is an unthinkable folly to which I am only writing in order to avoid any misinterpretation.
But it is in the midst of the weaknesses and difficulties that we take refuge in Christ and feel his power better, and through his power and sincerity towards himself and with others we can feel completely happy in our rarity and our individuality for our battles and our afflictions.
Jm 5:11 “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered…”.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you so that there will be a new breaking of emotional barriers and for a supernatural vulnerability to be established in your lives! Amen!
