Your ego is composed of all the fictions you have created about yourself to replace who you really are. Further, you build your life around those fictions and become misled about your calling in life which results in vanity or emptiness. Vanity is void of truth thus man’s fictions created by imagination are centered in the ego. The ego promotes self-exultation whereas those who walk in Love serve and minister to others.
James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
When the ego is in charge, your walk of faith is hindered to the point of non-existence. The ego would have us believe that our own characteristics are sufficient to do anything we can imagine and we do not need any help from others to achieve our agenda. We begin to expend time, energy, and financial resources to promote the agenda of the ego only to find that the end game is emptiness. Men spend their entire careers to achieve financial success at the expense of others only to find loneliness and sickness at the end of their days.
The ego grows as a result of fear and falsehood. The ego and the mind want to be in control of your future. The mind is a good servant but a harsh taskmaster. Your mind will move you toward illusion and direct you away from your calling in order to achieve an empty agenda. The focus is always on “self” and the promotion of “self” toward others. Can you imagine how history would have been written had Jesus operated by “ego” rather than have a heart of service towards The Father? Before His ministry could get into full swing, the ego had to be dealt with in the wilderness of temptation.
Seeds of fear are planted often at an early age. Fear of rejection, fear of harm, or fear of failure often provide fertile soil for the ego to grow into a guiding force replacing Love as the focus of one’s life. Man’s judgment is designed to evoke fear in the recipient. Traditions of men support the structure of judgment and promote submission to the structure set up by those in power. America’s judicial system creates a protocol where all of those in the courtroom are required to pay homage to the one who wears the black robe. “All stand” begins the process. The judge acts as a “god” in the courtroom with the bailiff as the enforcer. Uniforms, whether black robes or police attire, are designed to evoke respect even if the one who is wearing the uniform is lawless in the sight of Our Heavenly Father. How often has the ego of the judge caused the accused to be unjustly punished in excess of the crime simply because the judge did not like the accused? Those in power promote fear in order to sustain their position of power.
The ego cannot and will not forgive. Withholding forgiveness causes you to become an enemy of Our Heavenly Father and evokes a period of judgment in your life. In the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23-35), the servant owed the Master a debt of 10,000 talents. Let’s assume a talent to be valued as one day’s wages so the debt was about 30 years’ wages. The debtor could not pay the debt and asked for mercy from the Master. The Master had compassion and forgave the debt. The servant then went out an attempted to collect a much smaller debt and demanded payment rather than forgiving the debt. The Master was told of the servant’s actions and responded with the righteous execution of judgment to its fullest extent. The servant’s ego would not forgive even a minor debt and resulted in Heavenly judgment.
The ego is an enemy of righteousness and harbors judgment and unforgiveness. The ego attempts to exalt itself above Our Heavenly Father and creates a fictional world built on sand. It places you in direct conflict with the entire universe which was created by Love. The ego promotes lawless acts with demand restitution by the Laws of righteousness. It’s a losing battle, repent!