Tag Archives: poor self image

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – God Sees Your Possibilities

Leave a comment

Joyce meyer

Not that I have attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.—Philippians 3:12 (NKJV)

None of us is perfect. We are sometimes painfully aware of our shortcomings and imperfections, but God always looks at us through the eyes of possibility. He sees who we can become and He is always hopeful concerning our future. It takes time to grasp for ourselves the hope that God has for us, but I hope you’ll begin that journey today.

To realize how much hope God can have for a person, all I have to do is think about what I was like when He called me into full-time ministry.

When God began using me to minister to others, I still had a lot of bad habits. I needed a lot of refining. I sincerely loved God, and I wanted to do what was right, but I had very little revelation of His precepts. I went to church and tried to “be good” and to do good works, but I also had a shame-based, guilt-ridden personality as a result of many years of sexual abuse I suffered, beginning in my childhood. I didn’t like myself, had a poor self-image, and was terribly insecure and extremely fearful. To people who didn’t know me, I must have appeared very bold and aggressive. That outer presentation, though, didn’t match my inner life. Inside, I was a mess, but God filled me with His Holy Spirit and let me know He wanted to use me to minister to others.

The Lord did not wait until I was “fixed” before He got involved with me because He looked beyond my current reality and saw possibilities. He started working with me right where I was at the time and is responsible for getting me to the point where I am today. I am convinced He will do the same for you!

Love Yourself Today: Lord, help me to remember that You have hope for me and that when you see me, you see possibilities.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – We are His Friends

Leave a comment

dr_bright

“And since, when we were his enemies, we were brought back to God by the death of His Son, what a blessing He must have for us now that we are His friends, and He is living within us!” (Romans 5:10).

Marilyn had a very poor self-image. She hated the way she looked and felt that her personality was so bad that she could never expect to have true friends. She was concerned especially about marriage. How could she ever find a man to love her since she was so unattractive (in her thinking).

I was able to help her see how much God loved her, and how great was His blessing for her as a child of God. The supernatural life-style was available to her, and she was the one to determine whether or not she would measure up, as an act of the will by faith, to what God had called and enabled her to be. Her part was simply to trust and obey Him.

With God’s help, she determined to be that kind of person, the kind of person God created her to be.

We who are Christians can see ourselves as God sees us and through the enabling of the Holy Spirit become what we are in His sight. With the eyes of love, He sees us covered with the blood of Christ, which was shed on the cross for our sins, and, as expressed in Hebrews 10, He sees us as holy, righteous and totally forgiven. He holds nothing against us. The penalty for our sins has been paid – once and for all. There is nothing which we can add.

Now we have the privilege of becoming in our experience what we are already in God’s sight.

Bible Reading: Romans 5:11-15

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, I will begin to see myself as God sees me: loved, forgiven, holy, righteous, spiritually mature, aggressive and fruitful for the glory of God. Today I will live by faith the supernatural life which is my heritage in Christ.

Uncategorized

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Perfect Harmony

Leave a comment

 

“Most of all, let love guide your life, for then the whole church will stay together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14).

Martha had a very poor self-image. The distress she felt because of her physical appearance was compounded by the guilt of being grossly overweight. She hated herself and was despondent to the point of seriously considering suicide.

I counsel many students and older adults who are not able to accept themselves. Some are weighted down with guilt because of unconfessed sins. Others are not reconciled to their physical handicaps or deformities. Still others feel inferior mentally or socially.

My counsel to such people is this: God loves you and accepts you as you are. The love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit enables us to love ourselves as God made us. We can be thankful for ourselves, loving ourselves unconditionally as God does, and we can love others unconditionally, too.

It is Satan who is the great accuser, causing us to hate ourselves and others. God, having commanded us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, and our enemies, will enable us to do what He commands us to do as we claim His promise.

The great tragedy of many families is that resentment, bitterness and hate overtake their members like an all-consuming cancer, ultimately destroying the unity among husband, wife and children. Love of the husband and wife for each other, and of parents and children for one another, is so basic that it should not need to be mentioned. Yet, sadly and alarmingly, children are alienated from their parents, and even many Christian marriages are ending in divorce – in fact, in greater numbers today than at any other time in history.

God’s kind of love is a unifying force. Paul admonishes us to “put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

Bible Reading: Colossians 3:18-25

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Since God commands us to love Him, our neighbors, our enemies and ourselves, today I will claim that supernatural love by faith on the basis of God’s command to love and the promise that if I ask anything according to His will, He will hear and answer me.