ICS Daily Devotions
Help Others See Them as God Sees Them
Romans 12:2 (NKJV) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The world is defining what beauty is to girls. They might be body shamed for being short or fat, and some of them might be growing up in families that pressure them through negative comments. These girls are likely to grow up under-confident. They may even suffer from bulimia and depression and inflict themselves with pain or hurt themselves just to numb the feelings of rejection.
Self-image means “me looking at me”, and those struggling with it will tend to fall back on their historical self-perceptions rather than let new information change their perspectives. Therefore, they must desire for change themselves if they wanted to have a breakthrough in their self-image, but we can help them to intentionally renew their minds with the Word of God by choosing to think of how God looks at them. Instead of falling back on all the negativisms that were said in the past and suffer in silence and defeat, the Word can help them to reprogram how they think and look at themselves.
Born-again Christians should see themselves in Christ. Therefore, they should be saying, “Praise the Lord, I’m a child of the living God; I belong to His family. I have no past because my past is under the blood of Christ. I have a new identity in Christ, and I’ll build my self-image in Christ. I am unique, beautifully and wonderfully made by God. I’m not concerned about how others look at me because what matters is how God sees me. I can’t please everybody because I live in a fallen world, so I’ll begin to look at myself differently. I praise God for my look and figure. I’m priceless because I’m bought by the blood of Christ. I’m accepted in the beloved, seen as righteous, blameless and holy in Christ. I have unique gifts and talents and God has a calling for my life and a good plan for me. I’m seated with Christ in the heavenly places far above all principalities, dominion and might. He is the lifter of my head. I set my eyes on eternity and adjust my values to God’s values. I am more than a conqueror in Christ because of God’s love for me. He’ll never leave me nor forsake me because of His abundance of grace and unconditional love for me.”
Meanwhile, someone needs to accept them as they are, affirm them, love them unconditionally and journey with them. If you are someone who suffers from self-image problem, you might want to give the right to someone close to you to help you renew your mind and remind you to look at yourself the way God looks at you. The paradigm shift will take some time, but breakthrough will come because the Word of God is powerful!
Sermon Series: Help! Go and Do Likewise
