Pastor's Ponderings, May 6, 2019

See Ourselves As God Sees Us

On April 3, 2017, Donnalynn Civello, the Executive Director of Ethereal Wellness Counseling, wrote a blog post about a common practice of,  “Seeing Yourself Through The Eyes of Others. She mentions that doing this “renders you blind to yourself. Why use others’ eyesight to see yourself? Why would you want to look at who you are through the lens of someone else? It seems odd, yet we do it all the time.”   Many times we will accept the lies of that other people tell us rather than believing what God has said about us.

In the Bible, the children of Israel approached the Promised Land after God had miraculously delivered them from Egypt, the land of their captivity. Their spies returned with tales of a land full of milk and honey.  Yet they refused to try to take that land because they felt the inhabitants looked at them as small grasshoppers, which is how they felt about themselves (Numbers 13:33).  Even though God had brought them through the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian army, they declared that they were not able to defeat their newest enemy (Numbers 13:31).

Many times we will talk ourselves into defeat because we will judge ourselves inadequate to deal with the exigencies of life. Our parents, friends, or relatives will tell us that we can’t accomplish our mission in life and we simply accept the fact that we are defeated. 

But God tells us that we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) and He will always cause us to triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14). God is always for us, so who can be against us (Romans 8:31)?  The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords will be with us always so we should not be concerned with how man sees us, but instead should focus on how God sees us. We are smart, talented, successful and we are wonderfully made in His image.  Our capacity is limitless because we serve a God that is limitless.

We can decide that we can do everything through God who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13).  He calls us prosperous, healthy, victorious, and overcomers.  Let us receive the good report from the Lord about who we are and what we can do. Let us see ourselves like God sees us.

Numbers 13:31, 33
New International Version (NIV)

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.
33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Romans 8:37
New International Version (NIV)

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

2 Corinthians 2:14
King James Version (KJV)

14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Romans 8:31
New International Version (NIV)

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Philippians 4:13
New International Version (NIV)

13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.