Seeing Ourselves the Right Way
Read The Daily:
Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11
Alisha brought up the terrifying experience of going the wrong way down a one-way street. All you can think about is how to get off, how to avoid a head-on collision. A one-way sign tells us the direction we’re supposed to go. It’s a powerful metaphor for how we see ourselves. God doesn’t want us to see ourselves going the wrong way, stuck in a self-perception that’s off course.
While Saul saw himself as a persecutor, God saw Paul the Apostle. While we might see our limitations, our past mistakes, or how others have labeled us, God sees our potential. He sees us as holy, sanctified, and justified. He doesn’t see the mess we were; He sees the masterpiece we are becoming through Him. This isn’t about ignoring our past, but about not letting it dictate our present or future.
It’s so easy to get stuck seeing ourselves through the lens of our failures. We replay our mistakes, we listen to the inner critic, and we convince ourselves that’s who we are. But God’s Word tells us something different. It tells us we’ve been washed, sanctified, and justified. That’s a powerful shift in perspective. When we start seeing ourselves the way God sees us, we can finally start moving in the right direction, with purpose and confidence.
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Prayer for the Day
God what are you showing me? What am I going to do about it?
God help me to see one person that I can serve through a kind word, random act of kindness, or simple gift today?
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Read The New Testament In A Year
He is the messenger Malachi announced when he wrote, I’m sending my messenger on ahead To make the road smooth for you. “Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. The ordinary and disreputable people who heard John, by being baptized by him into the kingdom, are the clearest evidence; the Pharisees and religious officials would have nothing to do with such a baptism, wouldn’t think of giving up their place in line to their inferiors. “How can I account for the people of this generation? They’re like spoiled children complaining to their parents, ‘We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.’ John the Baptizer came fasting and you called him crazy. The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush. Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. Luke 7:27-38
I, Paul, have been sent on a special mission by the Messiah, Jesus, planned by God himself. I write this to God’s congregation in Corinth, and to believers all over Achaia province. May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours! Timothy, someone you know and trust, joins me in this greeting. All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort–we get a full measure of that, too. When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you’re just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you’re going to make it, no doubt about it. We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. 2 Corinthians 1:1-8