What do you think about yourself and how many negative statements have you said about yourself? Have you ever compared yourself with someone else? Have you ever made a statement somewhat like this, I am ugly, dumb and a moron, why would anyone love me I have nothing going for myself?” Do you lack self-confidence?
I always try to be pretty transparent about myself and today is no different, I have felt pretty much this same way and said way too many negative things about myself. The trouble with thinking this way and repeating negative things about yourself is that you start believing the very words you say. I call this ‘stink-in thinkin’, a very damaging frame of mind. If you continue to think and speak this way about yourself, you will be so inundated with these thoughts that they will control your words and your actions, to say nothing about the way people will think of you. It will affect your schoolwork if you are in school or your ability to get a job and many other areas of your life.
The way you perceive yourself has a lot to do with the way you were raised. If you were raised with Christian parents that loved the Lord, you were probably nourished well and also loved and that should help you think more positively about yourself, praise God. If you were raised in a non-Christian home you may have been emotionally, psychologically and/or sexually abused which would have altered your way of thinking and that is why you feel so negative about yourself. That may also alter the way you look at God and the way you feel about Him.
If you are a born-again believer I have some exciting news for you. That was your old life, before Christ made you a new creation in Him. You and I need to get this verse deep down in our hearts and soul. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Now try to get ahold of the meaning of this verse. The Lord didn’t take you, or me, and make us better people, no He made you and me new persons in Him. The Lord put His seed in us and made us brand new people.
What does it mean to be born–again? When we were born into our family we were brand new, so to speak, now that we have been reborn we have been born into God’s family and we become God’s children. That is a well known verse, but how many believers really meditate on what it says.
Jesus said to a religious leader in John 3: 5, 6, “The truth is, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of the water and Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life but the Holy Spirit gives new life from Heaven.” Now that we have the Spirit of God living in us and have been given the mind of Christ we should be thinking positively about who we are in Christ. We need to see ourselves the way the Lord sees us, not as the world sees us, we are brand new in Christ. We are the very sons and daughters of the most high God, the creator of the world and everything that was created in it.
We are covered by the righteousness of Christ, we have been cleansed, washed and purified of our sins with the precious blood of Christ. We have been set free of the old life and the conformity to it. We still live in this world but our citizenship is in Heaven. We are precious to God and He loves us with an unconditional love. If the Lord created you, do you think He made a mistake? He never makes mistakes.
If you will allow Him to, He will heal your broken heart and all your wounds and scars. Much of our problem is that we worry so much about what people see, and also what we see about us, because we have been programmed that way. What we need to be doing is renewing our minds and start thinking about what the Lord sees and what He is concerned about. He is looking at the heart. When you pray, pray that the Lord will give you a sweet and gentle spirit which is more important than all the beauty in the whole world. You may think you are the ugliest person in the world but if you have a sweet and gentle spirit people will take notice and realize that your inner beauty is much more important than your outer beauty.
I have been so consumed with ‘stink-in thinkin’ over the years that I tried very hard to please everyone. I’ve tried to dress the part and look the part, I think I have bent over backwards trying to please everyone I came in contact with, but believe me it doesn’t work. You need to strive to be the person that God intended you to be. You need to glimpse at people and gaze at the Lord and realize that we are precious to the Lord and if we will do our part He will be glad to do His part and He will transform us into what He wants us to be.
So starting today, I want you to get rid of all your ‘stink-in thinkin’ and put on a positive attitude and start saying good things about yourself. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “To take every evil thought captive unto the Lord.” No more ‘stink-in thinkin’ and have a victorious, blessed day.
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