I think we have all heard the saying, “Fake it till you
make it!” In fact some of us have said it, pertaining to our own lives. Do you think this is something Kingdom dwellers should do?”
The urban dictionary definition is…“To act
like you are something so you can, in fact, become that thing.” I think this is
appropriate, but I felt I should go a little deeper as to what a faker or fake is, so we can all be on the same page.
Fake…verb, counterfeit,
pretend, falsify, put on, imitation (not real or authentic). In other words, when
we are faking it, we’re perpetrating a fraud. Is there any honesty in that?
Nope.
Does this sound like anything the visible representation of
the invisible God should look like?
Of course not! Yet, there are way too many of us in the
Kingdom who do.
Personally I think that some of it comes about because we don’t
know any better, but most of it stems from the root of pride.
Faking it, is not being able to say, “I don’t know, or I
don’t really understand?” It’s not being able to ask for help. And this is a
big component of pride. We don’t want others to know we don’t really understand what
it means to be a new creature in Christ. We don’t want others to know we are
still struggling with the same old sin for 10 years. We don’t want anyone to
know we are scared that God doesn’t love us like He loves others, because we
see ourselves through a filter or root of shame. So, then what do we do? We
fake it, thinking somehow or someway we will get there eventually.
This is not good because it allows the enemy to swoop in and
convince us of untruths and half-truths. The pride in us gives him a foothold
to deceive us into thinking anything and everything but the truth about what
God has to say about us and our situation.
Faking it until we make it, is a worldly and ungodly concept
of how to live in this world, especially in the workforce. People are fearful
of losing their jobs because they are struggling to grasp a particular piece of
the puzzle (in a dog-eat-dog arena), therefore they learn to pretend and look
like the real thing in hopes of getting there eventually.
This should not be the mindset of the Believer. For one, we can’t
fake God out no matter how hard we try, and secondly faking people out only
hurts us and them in the long run. Why? Because people need to see a true reflection
of Christ through us.
I have a beautiful CZ (cubic zirconia) diamond ring and it sparkles and
looks like the real thing. It was a birthday present to me on my 55th
birthday. To this day I still get compliments whenever I wear it. Truth is, it’s
a nice piece of costume jewelry and I often share that it is just a CZ. How come? Well, I never bought it with the intent to deceive; I bought it because it had great
bling and I liked it. And though I paid good money for it, if I were in
a bind and had to liquidate my personal assets—it would be worthless—simply
because it’s a fake.
Our faking that we understand and know who we are in Christ
when we don’t is the same as owning a CZ. Because when we are in trouble we
have nothing of substance or value to help us make it through—it’s all been a
lie or fake.
I did a Biblegateway.com search on the words “pride and
haughty” and they are used a total of 73 times—pride 63—haughty 15 times.
“Pride goes
before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
“When pride
comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:12 (NIV)
Pride is a sneaky little devil, but very poisonous and
harmful. In fact, it is deadly.
It seems more and more that we hard time accepting correction of any
kind, when it comes to Kingdom living or are afraid to be up front and say, “I
don’t know?” or “I’m struggling.” So, we continue to try to fake it until we
make it, and really have nothing to offer the lost and hurting. We sell them a
bill of goods that aren’t really any good at all. We make Jesus into the magic wand to
fix all things and make life perfect and God a JC Penny's catalog for our biding
and use when we feel like it.
If you are one who really doesn’t understand what it means
to walk out your salvation—get into your bible and read! And a good place to
start…study what the Holy Spirit’s job is. And I say this because once you know
He is the one who is to help you, teach you, guide you and comfort you—you will
be on your way to understating what you couldn’t seem to grasp before. He will
illuminate the Word of God for you and give you supernatural understanding. He
will bring back to your remembrance what it is you need to handle any given
situation. But first you have to come clean (humble yourself) with God that you
no longer want to be a fake.
Jesus’ death on the Cross did so much for us, but too many
who say we are His followers don’t have a clue as to what exactly that is. We are still “woe is me” and
pretending to be something that we are not. It’s time to lay down that which we
keep holding onto that separates us from God and living beneath our privilege.
You want to make it versus fake it? Then dig into the Word
of God like you have never done before. Make it a life priority.
I ask you, “Why choose to be a fake when you can choose to
be authentic?!”
Until next week...
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