YOU'RE GOD'S WORK OF ART, JOHN...DON'T FORGET IT!

"As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)

Have you have ever found yourself in a deep hole of discouragement where everything seems so dark and overwhelming that your mind begins to play tricks on you? While I would like to portray myself as one who is confident and has it all together, I have to confess I have found myself in those potholes of life all too often…even most recently. Having just immerged from the darkness of one of those holes, I look back and wonder… why was it is so easy to believe the lies in my mind about who I am, rather than God's truth? Surely it is not because I was not sure what God's truth is. And, where in the world do those lies come from anyway?

Well, it all began in the Garden. After six days of creation, God looked at all He made, and He said, "It is good." But, then something went terribly wrong! The enemy of our souls crept into God's perfect world and deceived His image bearers with lies. And, even though God's redemptive plan has restored what the serpent destroyed in the Garden,… the enemy continues to tell us lies even today. He tells us that we are worthless failures who are not good enough,…we’re not smart enough,…we are powerless,… there is no way we are competent enough to succeed. And, that my friends… is simply NOT THE TRUTH!

God created the world, and stocked the seas with marine life, and He filled the skies with winged creatures. He ignited the stars in the night sky and placed the sun to light the day and the moon to illumine the darkness of night…and He did all of it with words… "And God said..." and it came to be. God spoke and what was not became what is. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6).

When God created man in His own image, He gave us that same powerful tool….words. He didn't entrust words to monkeys, zebras, or elephants. He gave words to man. And, He saw to it that our words would also have creative potential. The Bible tells us that "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21 NASB). Our words impact our children, our wife (or husband), our friends, and they impact the world. But some of the most powerful words we speak are the ones that no one hears...the words we speak to ourselves. We can speak life to ourselves and we can speak death to ourselves. A considerable amount of our words are spoken or thought to ourselves. Most of this self-talk is harmless, like…“What will I have for dinner?” Or, “Where did I put my car keys?” But, some of our word to ourselves are very destructive.

When we say, "I'm so stupid!" Or, "I'm such an idiot!" Or "I'm never going to be good enough!"…It can create destructive thought patterns that can paralyze a person into inactivity. It can put you in a place where you don’t know how to take the first step to crawl out of the pothole. And, I fear that these negative self-perceptions repeated over a period of time will brand themselves into our minds and eventually become our reality. If you repeat a lie enough times,… you may begin to believe it, and the lie becomes your reality...even though it is a false reality. "As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)

When we look into God's incredible love letter to us…our Bible, we discover the truth. God does love you (Colossians 3:12 ). We are told we have an entire cloud of witnesses cheering for us (Hebrews 12:1). I am told that “I am God's masterpiece...His work of art!” (Ephesians 2:10) His Word tells me that I am good enough because Christ lives in me (John 14:20). WOW!!!…I am a chosen, holy, dearly loved child of God!  That's the truth!  Because that’s the way God sees us!

I believe that God has no greater joy than to know that His children are walking in the truth. And, when we are walking in the truth, the lies of the devil are exposed. We can recognize the lie,…we can reject the lie,…and we can replace the lie with truth. And, that is when we can we be all that God has created us to be, and do all that God has created us to do. We can experience the abundant life that He planned all along!

I know God has great plans for all of us-His Word promises that He does. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But many of us are not experiencing the abundant life because we don't know…or sometimes forget who we are. But, God wants us to see exactly who we are, what we have, and where we are as a child of God. It is the key to living the victorious Christian life.

I am thankful for people around me who love me and care for me when I fall into a pothole,…friends who will come along side and help me to start seeing the truth again. They help me hear God say... "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Let’s speak the truth about ourselves TO ourselves. Let's see ourselves as God sees us.