The Thief
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10 NIV
What is a thief? A thief is one who is deceptive, sly, stealthy. The actual definition states a thief as one “who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or violence.”
It is essential to identify a few pieces of this definition. The thief does not create a great disturbance, rather they move in the shadows, out of sight so that those they steal from remain unaware. It is subtle, yet can become substantial.
As we live our lives, how often do we stop and ponder what has been stolen from us? Not necessarily in the physical sense, but primarily in a deeper sense of that which we have been given alongside a right understanding of ourselves.
What has been stolen from you?
Identity? Joy? Peace?
These may seem like large abstract things to be stolen but that’s what the thief does in our lives. In a subtle yet destructive way, our culture, experiences, and the devil have slowly stolen aspects of our true identity and replaced them with lies, with counterfeit realities. This is not the devil in its red pitch forked bearing cartoonish image we have crafted to minimize the evil and destruction of satan, but the very real spiritual evils which attempt to oppress us in each moment. The truths which God has made us image bearers are so easily get tainted in subtle means. Like one who steals a precious piece of art or a relic and replaces it with a worthless counterfeit, the enemy looks into our lives, strikes insecurity, and replaces true identity with a lie.
This happens in infinite ways. It can be through childhood experiences where, whether verbally communicated or not, your worth was associated to performance in sports or school. It could have come through body insecurity, the belief that when you have a certain amount of money then you will be content. There are an infinity number of subtle ways which we have slowly had our identity sapped.
Instead of believing we are worthy of love as our identity proven through how God sees us, we have that identity stolen and replaced with the belief that we must earn love, perform for it, or simply will never be worthy of it.
Instead of experiencing joy and celebrations, we are filled with the lie that comes with comparison. Never content in our circumstances, always wanting more, filled with a covetous envy of others. We have so quickly lost our ability to celebrate others, so often asking “why am I not the one who…” or making excuses and exclaiming that we could have done that, or discounting others by stating their circumstances made things easy for them.
What are the thieves in your life? What are the things which hold you from living in the full joy God has intended for you?
If you’re like me, perhaps it is comparison, fear of rejection, or distraction.
I so easily become consumed by questioning my own worth or calling when I see others living a glamorous life. I try to earn the approval of people by working harder and harder, doing more, trying to appease everyone with the intention of earning their love and admiration.
My perception of my own worth has been so distorted as the identity of worthy and an adopted child of God has been cast to the side and culture, environment, and misinterpretation of reality have led to a distorted understanding of myself and the source of joy, fullness, and worth.
The second half of that verse in John 10 is just as profound.
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10 NIV
Our natural, intrinsic reaction to dissatisfaction is to fill ourselves with more things. We create an internal consumeristic cycle of destruction.
