Fixing Myself

Philippians 1:6–And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Recently a friend of mine posted the image above on their Facebook page. When I read it, I understood what it was saying, but struggled with it biblically. So, with fear and trepidation of being labeled as “that guy” who’s always picking and complaining I wrote the following to my friend.
May I suggest that we have the repairs done by a “Master Mechanic”! We need to let the “manufacturer” use official parts and procedures so that the repairs are done right. There’s nothing worse that getting a repair by a poor technician. When we try to fix ourselves bad things can happen. God is that “Master Mechanic”. He knows us, He made us and He knows how to fix us! Stay Bold!
Okay, so the whole “Master Mechanic” and using only “Manufacturer Approve Parts” may not have been the best illustration, it’s just what popped into my head.
I’ve been thinking about this though for a couple of weeks now and felt like I should try and flesh it out a little more. Again, I’m not trying to be the guy that just picks everybody apart, but we do have to be critical thinkers.
Let’s take it line by line and see what we can find.
“I’m currently under repair.”
About all I can say on that is, AMEN! According to the Word of God, we are all broken and need to be repaired. That brokenness is a consequence of sin and all of us are suffering because of it.
Romans 5:12–Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[a] because all sinned—
But, for the repair process to begin, we have to start at the right place. As my boatman buddy told me a long time ago, “Carl, if you have a good start, you’re going to have a good finish!” Well, in order to have a good start we need to address a couple of issues. T
1. Do we need to be repaired? And if so,
2. “Who” are we going to allow to do the repairs.
In order for the proper repairs to be made we must first recognize that we need to be “repaired”. Seriously, if you don’t know that something’s broken, you’re not going to try and have it repaired.
As a Christian that means the first place to start this process is to recognize that we are all broken, that we are all sinners.
Romans 3:23–for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
This means that we can’t fix the problems on our own.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, we can put on a false face and cover up the fact that we’re damaged with all kinds of Band-Aids. Man, today you can even get Band-Aids that look really cool. Some even have fun things like Spiderman and Batman on them.

Back when I was a child they were just all ugly beige things!
The only problem is that no matter how cool they may look, the Band-Aid isn’t going to fix the problem. No, in order to accomplish that, we’ve got to recognize that we can’t fix the problem, because we are a part of the problem!
Romans 3:10–as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”
We’ve “all sinned” against God, which destroyed what He wanted for us and originally gave us, which was perfection. Because of that, we’re now deserving of death. God tells us that in:
Romans 6:23–For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
How about:
“trying to find myself.”
Forgive for what may seem to be an insensitive statement, but what does, “I’m trying find myself!” really mean? It sounds so spiritual and “self-helpy”, but the truth is it’s not going to do anything for you in the long term.
Seriously. Think about it this way. If I’m lost and wandering in the wilderness the last thing I’d want is to rely on are my skills to try and find my way home. Shoot, even with all of the technology that we have today I still get lost. If it were up to me to find my way out, call the coroner!
No, I’d want a skill outdoorsman to find me and lead me out of the mess that I’m in.
If you’ve never recognized that you’re a sinner and lost, you’ll never get found.
And if you do realize that you’re lost, you’d better never fully rely on yourself to fix that “lostness”! We can’t fix it, you can only fall further into the darkness.
Proverbs 14:12–There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Maybe you’ve heard the old saying about, “the blind leading the blind”? Well that’s what’ll happen when you rely on your own wisdom and strength to solve this issue.
No, the way that we “find ourselves” is to recognize who we are before a Holy God who revealed Himself as a man named Jesus. When we recognize that, and we repent and believe in Him, that’s when we are then truly “found”!
Mark 1:15–and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Acts 16:31–And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
But what about:
“heal myself.”
That’s not going to happen because we can’t heal ourselves. Like I said before, we can put a Band-Aid on it. We can drink ourselves into a state where our minds don’t function to try to forget about that internal brokenness. We can sleep around or work ourselves to death to acquire physical materials to cover up our iniquities. But it’s not going to work. Instead of healing, we’re destroying ourselves with these actions. And that’s because God is the only One that heal the illness that we all have.
1 Peter 2:24–He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Or how about:
“and take care of myself.”
I don’t see anything inherently wrong with taking care of ourselves. No, God made it very clear that we are special. And that’s because He created us in his image:
Genesis 1:27–So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Our bodies are His, not our own, we’ve been bought with a price:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20–Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
And that price was God Himself, coming as a man and dying on a cross for our sins so that we can be “found” and no longer separated from God for all eternity.
John 3:16–“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
He is actively seeking the lost, He’s not left us to fend for ourselves.
Revelation 3:20–“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
And because He did all of this, we can KNOW we are valuable.
1 John 3:16–“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
What about the last line:
“thank you for your patience.”
Yes, thank you for your patience with me. I’m still an ordinary man who’s seeking to serve an extraordinary God. I’ll have good days and bad days. The desire is to have as few bad days as possible and shine for the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the way, make sure to take some time and thank Jesus for His patience with us.
2 Peter 3:9–The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
The truth is, we CANNOT do this by ourselves so don’t even attempt it. It’ll leave you sad and frustrated.
No, turn yourself over to the one who has shown that He loves us and wants us to live a life full and abundant. And once you’ve done that, go out and tell someone else about this amazing God that we serve.
Romans 1:16–For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Blessings and . . .
Stay Bold!