To butcher Sally Field’s quote upon winning her first Oscar, “You like me; you really like me.”
Have you ever wondered if God not only loves you, but He really really likes you? Well, here is the truth.
Yes, God loves you; He really, really does. Not only does he love you, God likes you! He created you, and He delights in you. Father God looks at you and says, “That’s my kid, isn’t she/he grand?” Most of the people who matter the most to you also like you. So do yourself a favour, let yourself off the hook. Stop trying to impress them by being something or someone you aren’t. It’s exhausting! If you were just like _____ (fill in the blank), you wouldn’t be you! Your gifts are your own; your talents are your own. Their gifts and their talents are their own. You are not less than someone just because they excel at something and you don’t. In God’s eyes, you are not more than someone simply because you excel at a skill they do not possess.
The Cross demonstrated the greatest affirmation of God’s love. Once and for all time, Jesus spread his arms out in surrender. And as He was nailed to the Cross, Heaven shouted, “See! How great is the Father’s love that He gave His Son to die for you!” Celebrate that love! Lay down the need to compete for God’s approval. Sibling rivalry in the family of God stinks to high heaven.
If you gauge your self-worth and identity on what others have done to you, said to you, or called you in your past, you will probably find yourself stuck without much sense of purpose. If you live your life today in fear of what others might say about you tomorrow, then you are sentencing yourself to a life of anxiety, second-guessing, and confusion.
God’s pleasure for you as His child will always be your healthiest source of identity. He created you.
Ephesians 2:10 -“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
God does not make mistakes. Even if you think you have messed up by making a poor decision, God still thinks you are terrific. When you feel uncertain about a course of action, dare to ask Father God these questions. “Am I making this decision based on who You say I am? Am I making this decision to spite those who don’t see my worth? Am I trying to prove myself to You?”
Even if you think you missed it or heard God wrong, you haven’t thwarted His ability to make all things beautiful in and through your life. Live with the assurance of His love, and you will find yourself living in peace – and carrying that peace into the world full of people desperate to know they are valued.
If you ever doubt that you are highly favoured and loved by God, meditate on these verses.
Romans 8:15-17a (NET) -“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ.”
Romans 8:31-39 (NET) “What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …
No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.“
Until Next Week
© 2022 Katherine Walden