Everyone has a mental image of their identity that manifests in their emotions and relationships. Your self-image, the perception you have of yourself, influences how you interact with others. As a Christian, this image can be healthy, reflecting how God loves and sees you, or poor, reflecting how you perceive yourself through the eyes of that old person who died on the cross with Jesus.
Yesterday, we looked at the first source of our self-image, the outer world of family. As children, our knowledge and feelings are largely shaped by the way our family members respond to us. We observe their expressions, hear their words, and witness their reactions, which provide us with insights into our own identities and who we will become. As adults and new creations in Christ, how we perceive God’s love for us greatly and powerfully affects how we see ourselves.
Today we consider the three other sources of our self-image—the inner world, Satan, and God and His Word.
Your inner world consists of the spiritual, emotional, and physical equipment you bring into the world. This includes your senses, nerves, your capability to learn, understand, and respond. The inner world for some people includes physical deficits.
Differences exist between people in the spiritual, emotional, and physical tools they have to navigate life. Look at children. No two children are alike in emotional and physical makeup. You can have one child who is so stubborn that you almost have to knock him in the head to get his attention. Then you have another one who is so sensitive to the touch, you only have to look at him to get a response. You can’t raise one child the way you raise another one. God sees us as He created us. We are all wonderfully made but also wonderfully different. God raises us according to how He knows we will learn, understand, and respond to Him. Regardless our different makeups, spiritual rebirth in Christ is the power which changes everyone emotionally and physically.
The spiritual part of our lives cannot be ignored. This is where Christians differ with secular and humanistic thinking, which looks at human nature as fundamentally good. We don’t believe this. In His Word, God has revealed to us that we aren’t born into this world fundamentally good. We are victims of a moral deficiency, an inclination to do wrong. It’s called original sin.
Down through the generations since Adam and Eve’s sin, flawed parenting has existed. Less that perfect parenting is revealed in frustration, ignorance, inappropriate words and actions, and the most detrimental, conditional love. We are all a victim of Adam’s original sin. We came into this world inclined toward the wrong. Consequently, we are imbalanced in our motives, desires, and purposes. This causes our reactions and responses to also be off kilter, unbalanced, and imperfect.
Children often misread what they see due to the inherent self-centeredness in all of us. This significantly impacts their self-image. No matter how hard a parent attempts to raise their child to have a healthy self-image, children can misinterpret what they see and hear and grow up feeling inadequate. There is no perfect parent or child. However, there is the Word of God that has the power to renew us from the inside out, transforming what is off kilter and imperfect.
The Word of God reveals that we are not just victims. We all have fallen short of God’s glory and share in the responsibility of who we are and what we are becoming. No one is ever truly healed until he forgives those who have wronged him and receives God’s forgiveness for his own wrong reactions.
The next source of our self-image is Satan. He is certainly the author of low self-esteem. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Satan uses any dislike we have about ourselves as a weapon against us. He is a liar (John 8:44), he is an accuser (Revelation 12:10), and he blinds our minds to the truth of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). In all these ways, the devil exploits our feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, urging us to belittle ourselves to prevent us from realizing our full potential as God’s beloved children.
The last source of our self-image is God. He is the perfect source, who through the renewing of our minds with His Word, transforms us mentally, emotionally, and physically to agree with His image of us.
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
As a believer in Jesus Christ, you can move from the torturous mess of a poor self-image to a healthy self-image. You can turn away from your crucified nature’s perception and see how God perceives you—this new person you are in Him. Through His resurrection power, you can experience healing and restoration of your spirit, soul, and body. This is God’s promise to you. This is His work, but you must cooperate with Him by faith. No longer a mess, your life can become the manifestation of His message.
Tomorrow, as we explore some misconceptions about loving God, ourselves, and others, I encourage you to begin seeking your identity in God’s Word. See yourself through God’s unwavering commitment to you, His unconditional love, and grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment