How do you VIEW yourself?

How do you VIEW yourself?

Value

Identity

Esteem

Worth

Value: Where does your value come from? It is so easy to go through our day grasping for value from our children, our jobs, our friends, our works. But through the Word we find our value in God's love and grace for us. God values us so much that He sent his Son to die for us (John 3:16)...He wants us to be saved and free. That just amazes me to tears. We are so valuable that God knows how many hairs are upon our head. He walks before us and behind us. The world says that our value comes in the things we have, our education, our job, our accomplishments and those of our kids, and our outward appearance. But God does not see us that way or value us for any of that. He values us as his child whom he loves lavishly.


Identity: How do we see ourselves...how do we describe ourselves? For so long I looked in the mirror and saw only labels that condemned me. I identified myself with those labels. They became who I was. The labels were my identity. Shameful...guilty...fearful...ugly....fat....stupid...not good enough...second best...(and more)...but as soon as I was able to begin to strip those labels from myself and see myself as God sees me...His Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)....perfectly and wonderfully made....I began to be able to walk in the path that He laid before me. It was not fun looking at myself each day like that. The decisions I made, the relationships I engaged in and the limits I put on myself were all based on that identity. We are a reflection of God (Psalm 139)....so seeing myself with labels and all of things written on them created a distorted view...a broken image...a false identity. when we look in the mirror we should see ourselves clothed in God's love, grace and mercy.


Esteem: A lot has been written in our world about "self-esteem". The definition of esteem is "to have great respect or high regard for". So self esteem means to have great respect for our self. This can be a shaky subject if we start to only focus on ourselves and our focus becomes inward only. But the bible says we must "love our neighbor as ourselves" (Luke 10:27). We have to like who we are if we can love others. And the greatest commandment of all is love (Matthew 22:38)....so when we as believers look at esteem we must esteem who God created us to be. We must esteem the love God showers upon us so that we can give it out to our neighbor. If we can't see ourselves as God sees us, it can be hard to love on others as God calls us to. God loves us sooooo much. So when we esteem ourselves it allows us to "love our neighbor" as God calls us to.

Worth: As God's children we are of high value...we are worth the death of God's Son. He paid a high price for us...things that are of high price are of worth or value. The price God paid for us was His Son...the highest price...the highest worth...we were worth the death...we are worth the cost of a masterpiece...because we are His masterpiece. All of those unworthy labels can be stripped off by the blood of Jesus...we are clean and worth it! Never ever forget the worth that God places on each of you as His child...

How do you VIEW yourself?

Look in the mirror. The person in the mirror is a beautiful reflection of God. Believe it..."so the bible tells me so".

Love, Teresa