Chapter 3 -Who Does God Say that You Are???

When I had just graduated from high school I was introduced to a book that really challenged my way of thinking about me. It is called Passion for Jesus, written by Mike Bickle. I want to share my favorite quote that Mike states towards the beginning of the book.

“My heavenly father was a kind God who loved me. He enjoyed my friendship and wanted me to be happy with Him. A God who enjoyed me even in my failure and immaturity. A God I did not have to strive to make happy, because he was already happy with me. He was a father who cheered me on and enthusiastically called me His son. God was not focused on my failures; He saw the value of my sincere, yet failed, desire to please Him. He was delighting in me. I was only beginning to understand His affection for me, even in the midst of my spiritual failure and immaturity. The fathers enjoys us each step in our journey of spiritual growth. He enjoys us not only after we grow up, but also while we are in our immature stage. My Heavenly Father was enjoying me while I was yet in the process of maturing, not sighing in disgust as I thought He was. He loved and longed for me; He enjoyed my fellowship with Him, even while I was falling short.”

I don’t know if that impacts you like it impacted me and continues to impact me every time I read it. God is excited about us, even when we are thinking that no one can be excited about us. That’s encouraging!

I know first hand how it will negatively affect us if we live life out of our insecurities. Just so you know all females of all ages are insecure to some degree. It is hard for us to see ourselves like God sees us because we see us compared to the standard of society and the media. Have you ever heard of airbrush? I promise you, even Lauren Conrad has insecurities. No one is above or beyond not liking something about themselves. This is why it is so essential to be in constant communication with God. I guarantee you if you could fully grasp Gods opinion of you, your life will be radically different! It would never be the same again, in a good way of course! My prayer is that you would begin see yourself the way that God sees you.

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but the more absorbed with yourself you are, the less you notice those around you. This is a bad thing. I know for me when I am having a “fat day” all I can think about is how fat I look. Instead of being concerned with those around me and how they are doing, I don’t care because I look fat. I am missing out on maybe being a friend to someone. It also hard with Jason because he will tell me I look pretty and I will literally say, “No I don’t, I look fat”. What that is communicating to Jason is that he is lying and doesn’t know what he is talking about. That in turn makes him not want to compliment me. A little inside scoop about guys, they like a confident girl. It’s not attractive to a guy when a girl is constantly talking about how fat, skinny, ugly, black, white, short, or tall she is. He wants to be with someone that likes themself. My mom would always tell me in high school, “Elizabeth, stop putting yourself down! You wonder why boys don’t like you, it’s like you are going around saying ‘Who wants some rotten pizza?’ Who wants rotten pizza?” I pass this idea onto you, you will carry yourself the way you view yourself. If you think you are fat, ugly, broken out, or nerdy that is how you are going to look to the people around you. You have to be able to walk with your shoulders back and your head held high. The only way you are going to get to this point is by having an accurate view of who God created you to be.

Let’s say you decide to live life with low opinions of yourself. Here is a glimpse into your life. You date a guy that beats you emotionally/physically/sexually and can’t get out of the destructive relationship because you think you don’t deserve anything better. You are scum anyway, so who would want you. Then you go to your dead beat job because you think you can’t get anything better because after all you aren’t that smart any way. You walk with your head down and your shoulders shrugged because you think you have nothing to show off. Now tell me, is this a life that you want? Is this your highest hopes for your life? Do you see that the foundation for a healthy life is a healthy view of yourself?

Now let’s say you decide to live a life with a view of yourself that God has for you. You are so consumed by God’s love for you that really it’s hard to even see a guy that deserves you. Being popular could be fun, but because you already know who you are in Christ, the other peoples' opinions of you don’t really matter cause you already know who created you. His opinion is that you are beautiful, talented, loved, and smart. You go through Jr. High and High school totally focused on being an honest person, a good friend, and an example of confidence that others envy. By the time you get into your career and get married you can look back with few regrets because you have always had your shoulders back and your head held up high because you are in an amazing and loving relationship with your creator who thinks the world of you.

Which life do you prefer, a long, happy and fulfilled life or a dark, long, and depressing life? I will once more say it, you are the most powerful person in this decision making process. It is up to you to pursue the life that you want. I can tell you that the latter is definitely a life that God dreams for us.

No matter who you are, where you’ve been, or the direction you are currently going, God’s love for you does not waiver. He is so excited about his beautiful daughter that his thoughts outnumber the grains of sand on the beach. That’s a lot of thoughts! He knows that it is hard. He knows that you don’t understand why your parents had to get that divorce, or why that guy raped you, or why the kids make fun of you, or why that guy that you are crushing on never crushes on you back. He wants to love on you and hold you and show himself to you, but you have to open up to him in order to let that happen. He can’t make you choose to love Him; He can just ask you and hope that you will return the love. Nothing brings Him more joy then when His gorgeous daughter comes to His feet in brokenness asking Him to pick her up and just hold her. I challenge you. Ask Him to pick you up and to reveal His heart for you. You will be blown away by the response! Life is too short to sit back and live a Plan B life. You deserve a Plan A life, and God wants to give it to you!