Being ourselves in Christ by Esther Swyer

Written July 12, 2004

Today I was looking back a few years in some of my diaries looking for a specific thing, and I came across an entry that set me remembering. I began to realise that it was something important enough to write an article on; that it is just as important a lesson for us to learn today as it was 26 years ago.

A few years ago a couple of my friends came in for a visit. They had a problem they wanted to talk about. It seemed they were finding it difficult to keep from falling into "the same old trap" of trying to be an imitation of whoever was teaching them in the things of God, and they were aware that it was a problem they seemed to keep repeating. They needed some solid ground to stand on.

As we talked, we discussed their need to recognise that they must become what Christ wanted them to be simply by being themselves, under His control. That they need not scrap everything they'd learned from Him every time someone else disapproved. They needed to learn to test and evaluate every teaching by the Word and not according to someone else's experience or learning.

They needed to learn that being in one accord with other Christians or with their leaders did not mean being carbon copies of them. We can each receive the imprint of Christ on our own personalities and He can use our way of being ourselves to express Himself.

They needed to learn in their own experience to see others as able also to make mistakes and to stop putting pastors, or anyone else, on pedestals. Then they wouldn't be so crushed every time that person seemed to dash something else they'd learned to the ground. They needed to learn to discern between blind faith in a person, because he/she walks close to God, and faith in the Lord Himself.

After we talked all this over, we had prayer together. As I think about this now, I remember what a difficult lesson it was to learn. And I believe many Christians do not grow strong in the Lord because they never learn how to test and discern true teaching according to His Word. They become like the people described 2 Timothy 3:7, who are "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth". Why? Because they are not going to the Source of the Truth, the Lord Himself, through His Holy Spirit. Did He not say He was giving us a Helper, a Teacher?

This does not mean that we are never to learn from others, especially those whom God had called to be our leaders. But it does mean that we are each responsible for learning to discern the error when we hear it and to recognize the truth, and learn to stand on that truth, and allow the Lord to make us into the person He wants us to be - using our own personality to shine through to draw others to Himself, as we learn to walk with Him.

about the author

Esther Swyer was born in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. The eldest of eight children she married at twenty-one and promptly had six children. She became a Christian in October of 1958 at the age of twenty-five and was baptised in December of that year. She began teaching a Sunday School class of a dozen nine to ten year olds in 1961 or 1962 and has been teaching various age groups ever since.

Esther began teaching adults and leading Bible studies sometime in the seventies. She became involved in WMS in the late sixties and held various positions over the years, then in the early to mid-seventies she started serving on the Association Council. On top of all that she was involved for many years in ladies retreats serving as small groups director for around twenty years. Currently Esther is president of the WMS on the Association level, treasurer of her church, adult ladies class teacher, and is completing her third year as a church deacon.

Her first marriage ended after twenty-two years. She re-married thirteen years later in December 1988 and was widowed in June of 2000. She has eighteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Esther has just published a book about her spiritual journey.