God's view

Last week I talked about the need to see who we are without Christ in order to recognize the amazing goodness of the Lord toward us.  This week I want to look at what the Word says about us. Seeing the truth of who I am without Christ, I believe, was necessary so I would understand honestly who I am in Christ and that who I am is all about who He is in me.   Getting stuck in that place of self-awareness was never God's intention for my life though. Seeing myself through the eyes of God was His intention all along.

I had defined myself by my sin, by my circumstances, and by every negative thing anyone said to me.  God's Word proved to have a very different opinion about me though.  So let's consider what the Bible has to say to each of us, individually, and grab hold of the amazing love that He lavishes on us.

The first thunderbolt that pierced my armor of self-depreciation was from the book of Isaiah:  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  For I have carved you into the palms of my hands and your walls are continually before me.  (Is. 49:15-16)

I remember the feel of wonder the first time I realized that Jesus literally did this. The Hebrew word for palms include the top of the wrist where the nails pierced him.  Those nail marks were a revelation to Thomas.  They are carried on the beautiful body of Christ into eternity and one day when I stand before him I will see where he carved me into the palms of his hands because he loves me. The marks of death for the sake of my life.

But there are so many more pieces of treasure that continually served as a balm, a healing solvent, liberally applied to the wounds of my soul.  Here are some:

Romans 3:24  I am the forgiven child of God.
Romans 8:1-2 I am the child of God - set free
Romans 8:37   I am the victorious child of God
1 Cor. 1:2       I am God's child and acceptable to him
1 Cor. 1:30     I am a holy child of God
2 Cor. 5:17     I am made new as a child of God.
Ephesians 1:4  I am God's child, I am loved.
Ephesians 2:13 I am God's child who has drawn close to me.
Ephesians 3:12 I am a confident child of God.

Internalizing each of these truths transformed my understanding to allow me to walk in the forgiveness, the freedom, the victory, the acceptance, the holiness, the newness, the love, the closeness, and the confidence that are God's view of who I am, and to see you in that light as well.  God's grace is so full and complete that as we get a glimpse of it and understand just a glimmer of the truth He lavishes on us it changes us from the inside out.  I challenge you to spend some time in the next month as the world focuses on human love to meditate on a few of these verses and draw near to God.