This morning I was reading Ephesians, and I came across something wonderful that I had never quite thought about before.
Okay, that's not all true. I had thought about the concept before. But it showed itself in Ephesians this morning:
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,"
Ephesians 1:11
I'm pretty sure I've even heard this verse before - but it never, ever took on the meaning it did today.
You may or may not know that I tend to have rather low self-esteem. I have struggled and prayed about it, and God has helped me to see myself as I truly am in Christ. This verse has further helped me see that.
We have obtained an inheritance... according to his will.
He WANTS us to be his heirs. God's plans never fail or fall through. He always gets his first choice of what he wants. And his first choice in this regard is for me to be his heir and his beloved child.
Christians need to have a certain amount of self-esteem. I'm not
talking about constantly doing things to keep people thinking highly of
them. That's more of what the world (read: unbelievers) would say
self-esteem is. People are always saying "believe in yourself!" As if
you were something so amazing, that you could rely on yourself to
accomplish anything.
But we can't do that. We
can't rely on ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 says: "The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
So, as Christians, where do we get self-esteem? We all need it.
Otherwise, we'd have such a low opinion of ourselves to the point where
we would start lying to ourselves about our worth. We do have worth. But
it's not in ourselves. If the heart is deceitful, there's no way we
could look in ourselves for truth about who we are. We are more critical
of ourselves than anyone else is. We all have our insecurities, and NO
ONE on earth is entirely immune to peer pressure.
We
get our worth from JESUS. Since Jesus bore the punishment for all of
our sin and fear and insecurities and failings, we have HIS record. That
doesn't mean we don't sin. It does mean, though, that we aren't
going to be punished for our sin. God looks at us as beloved sons and
daughters. I don't know about you, but I find it comforting to know that
God thinks I'm beautiful. THAT'S how I should look at myself. The devil
likes to whisper in our ears and tell us lies about how we aren't worth
anything, how we can never be a success, et cetera. That's when I look
at what God thinks of me. He loves me as a Father loves his child! And
his opinion will never change. Oh, happy thought!
I'm an introvert myself, so I count myself as one of the socially
awkward club. You know, the kind that go to Chick-fil-a and have to
muster up all the courage in their being to go up to the counter and
order lemonade. (True story.) So, when I go out in public, I'm
constantly comparing myself to people, whether it's my physical
appearance, or the way I speak, or my sense of humor. It's easy for me
to sit here on my bed and type a bunch of words about how comparing
yourself to others doesn't get you anywhere, and how God made you unique
and for a special purpose. It's harder once I go out there and try to
apply it to my life. But God's always working. He really is. He's
showing me this and, slowly but surely, bringing me out of the pit of
low self-esteem.
God has perfect timing. I started
attending my new church around August of last year, and last September,
youth group started. Our theme for this whole year in youth group has
been: "Be yourself; who you are in Christ." It's amazing and wonderful
that God would place me in this group, talking about this subject, right
around the time I started struggling with self-esteem. Last week at
youth group, we did a sort of recap of everything we've learned in the
past few months. I wanted to share with you who we are and what we have
in Christ.
1) We are inseparable from Christ. "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39 2) We are sanctified (set apart and being made holy). "ButGod, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," - Ephesians 2:4-6 3) We have the Holy Spirit in us. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." - Acts 1:8
4) We are free. "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1 5) We have authority. ". . .so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." - Titus 3:7 6) We are masterpieces. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:10 Everyone in my youth group also received a card with the following printed on it:
I am a child of God.
I was created in His image for a unique
purpose that He prepared for me before I
was known to this world.
I constantly need this reminder of who I really am, otherwise, I
would always be beating myself up for my shortcomings and mistakes that
I'm bound to make. When I read this card, I'm reminded that God is a
forgiving and loving God, no matter how many times I mess up.
I'd like to leave you with this video made by the Skit Guys about being who God created you to be. Enjoy. :)
