WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE???
Who do you think you are?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been asked this question before in my life, and usually, before I can even think to answer, THEY proceed to tell ME who THEY think I am! Maybe you’ve heard these things too… things like, fat, stupid, lazy, selfish, ugly, angry, crazy, blah blah blah. Hearing these things makes us feel unworthy. Unwanted. Unloved. Unlovable!
But these are lies straight from the enemy! (Even if they’re coming out of a loved one’s mouth!) And this is where we need to STOP listening to the voice of the enemy, and start listening to the voice of Truth… listening instead to The Word that was in the beginning. (John 1:1)
So, let’s go back to the beginning. Waaaayyyy back to THE beginning. Aaaaallll the way back to page one where it starts, “In the beginning…” because THIS is where we START to read the TRUTH about who we are.
After all the amazing things God creates - the sun and moon and stars and birds and trees and fish and animals and flowers - after aaaaallll that, He creates US. Humankind. Male and female. Not as an afterthought, but as the pinnacle of His creation. (Genesis 1:26-28)
We were the ONLY things created in His image. His children. (1 John 3:1)
And we were created to rule the world. Together. With Him. (Psalm 8:3-8)
You don’t just give that power and authority to anyone.
You give it to someone you love.
And that is THE most important thing for you to hear… out of ALL the other things the Bible tells us we are, the most important thing to remember is that we are LOVED.
YOU are loved. Yes, YOU! This was really REALLY hard for me to hear and even harder for me to believe… that the God of the universe - the God Who CREATED the universe! - loves me. He loves ME! It may be hard for you to hear and believe too, especially if you’ve been hearing all the OTHER things that OTHERS have been telling you (and you’ve probably been telling yourself!) your whole life.
I think THE most well known Bible scripture in the New Testament is John 3:16. I think it’s become SO familiar, that its message no longer has any meaning for us… we can just ramble it off without even thinking. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Blah blah blah…
But it DOES have meaning for us… ESPECIALLY if we’ve been playing the “I’m not worthy,” tapes on repeat in our head for forever. Slow down and read it. It says, “For God SO loved the WORLD…” That’s EVERYONE. That’s you. That’s me. That’s EVERY beaten, broken, faulty, frail, horrible, hateful, suffering sinner on the planet! That’s right, not just the “good” people. Not just the “perfect” ones who PRETEND and/or SEEM to have it all together. No… He loves us ALL.
Right. Where. We’re. At.
Right. This. Very. Moment.
Paul reminds us of this when writing to the church in Rome and he says, “But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
I grew up thinking God was MAD at me for how horrible I was and for ALL the bad decisions I had been (and was still!) making! I was terrified of “repenting” (or turning around and returning to God,) because I believed He FOR SURE was gonna destroy me for not being better! I thought He was nothing but an ANGRY God, but the Bible actually says “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm 103:8) Another song says, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works…” (Psalm 145:8-9) Jesus Himself said that “joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life!” (Luke 15:10) Over and over and over we read that God is PATIENT because “He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent…” (2 Peter 3:9) He wants us ALL “…to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
The Truth about Who Jesus is. (John 14:6)
AND the truth about who we are… God’s amazing children that He loves so much He would do ANYTHING - even die on a cross! - so He could spend eternity together with us.
And THAT, my dear friend, is who you REALLY are!
In Jesus, name. Amen!
SCRIPTURES
John 1:1 ~ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (NASB)
Genesis 1:26-28 ~ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (NIV)
1 John 3:1 ~ See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
Psalm 8:3-8 ~ When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have set in place;
What is man that You think of him,
And a son of man that You are concerned about him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You have him rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put everything under his feet,
All sheep and oxen,
And also the animals of the field,
The birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. (NASB)
John 3:16 ~ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NKJV)
Romans 5:8 ~ But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (CEB)
Psalm 103:8 ~ The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (NIV)
Psalm 145:8-9 ~ The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness.The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. (AMPC)
Luke 15:10 ~ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life. (CEB)
2 Peter 3:9 ~ The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. (NLT)
1 Timothy 2:4 ~ (God) desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (ESV)
John 14:6 ~ Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (CEB)
Philippians 2:8 ~ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (ESV)