After 30 years of pastoral counseling and working through my own “issues,” I am convinced that nearly every personal struggle walking into a pastor’s or therapist’s office has been birthed out of a negative self image. Most of us come into the world hungering to know who we are. Our view of ourselves is shaped by the responses of those around us. We ask a few basic questions in a multitude of ways. Who am I? Do I matter? Does my life have significance? Am I worthy of love? Am I competent? Do I belong?
These basic questions begin to be answered immediately after existing the birth canal. When I cry, do I matter enough for someone to comfort me, feed me, or change me? Am I loveable enough that people fuss over me or hold me close? Do I have enough significance that I am protected and nurtured? When I am cared for, fussed over, and played with, the answer to these essential questions is “Yes.” A lack of these parental responses or blatant neglect and abuse trumpets a huge “No” to these questions. A huge “No” breads all kinds of issues in the life that individual.
As we get older the refrigerator door becomes littered with crayon scrawls that we pushed into our mother’s face asking if she liked each one (our way of asking if we are competent or capable). As we get older we measure our worth by the number of friends we have on Facebook, the number of parties we are invited to in junior high, the number of accolades we place in scrapbooks or see in our high school annual.
For the rest of our lives we are still scanning the horizon for clues about who we are and if we matter. After forty years of marriage couples still ask one another, “Do you love me?” which is code for, “Am I still worthy of love and do I still matter?” Many humans go to their graves with unhealed wounds because a father or mother never said “I love you” or I’m proud of you.”
God crafted us and understands more than anyone our deep need for confirmation that we matter, that we are capable people, and that our lives have significance. Even the Son of God needed to hear, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Our heavenly Father spends a great deal of time in scripture answering each of those questions for us. They are answered with a resounding “Yes” for every person in Christ.
They were answered first by the cross where our heavenly father paid the ultimate price to retrieve us from the enemy. Beyond that we have been pursued, adopted, grafted into his beloved Israel, declared to be the righteousness of God, appointed as ambassadors of Christ, seated with Christ in heavenly realms, honored to be kings and priests on the earth, given the very presence of God to live within us, granted immediate access to the throne room of the creator of the universe, promised that our Father will never leave us nor forsake us, given purpose and destiny by the King of Kings, and given supernatural gifts that surpass any earthy talent that can displayed on a stage or in any arena. On top of that we have been made more than conquerors and will sit in judgment on angels.
Think about who you are in Christ. You matter. You belong. You have an amazing destiny written in heaven. The Holy Spirit lives within you, so are supernatural. You are a son or daughter of the creator of the universe. You are his appointed representative on the earth. You are flat amazing! God says so. Take that knowledge with you wherever you go today.
