Truth and Feelings

Ephesians 4:14

Truth and Feelings

Scofield Foster

Scofield Foster

Downtown Campus Pastor

Being self made is woven into the fabric of our culture and our human nature. Ironically, putting ourselves at the center leads to a life of pressure, anxiety, and bondage. We can only experience true freedom when we live as creatures under the authority of a Servant-King who gives life and peace.

Study Questions

Application

  1. Being self made means looking within for identity, security, and meaning. In what ways do you view yourself as the solution to your own problems? What does that reveal about how you view God?

  2. How can you tie yourself to the mast of God’s truth and sing a better song than the world? Spend some time identifying gospel truths that counteract the lies you are believing.

Key Points

  • The self-made life is cursed because it turns us away from God. Instead of looking to him, we put our confidence in relationships, work, beauty, family, politics, and more.

  • The counter to being self made is trusting in God, depending on him as the source of life, and experiencing fruitfulness.

  • Christianity is fundamentally about submitting to the authority of another. God is our Lord and Jesus our King, yet he is also a servant.

  • The self-made song is to follow our desires—believing they lead to a good life.

  • The song of a creature is to let God transform our desires—believing he is the good life.

Other Scripture References

Ephesians 6:12

2 Chronicles 7:1–2

Jeremiah 17:5–10

Genesis 3