What do you see when you look in the mirror? Responses to this question would likely include a description of either the physical or emotional characteristics we view when we look at ourselves. As believers, when we look at ourselves from a purely physical or emotional viewpoint, we are not seeing the whole picture. We have to look at ourselves with our spiritual eyes in order to see ourselves the way God sees us. Only then will we be able to fully accept and love ourselves for who God created us to be.
We all have a few negative features on which we tend to dwell. This may be a physical characteristic like shape or size or an emotional characteristic like a feeling of inadequacy or rejection. When we look in the mirror and focus only on these negative features we are creating a negative mindset that shapes the picture we have formed of ourselves on the canvas of our souls. Our souls will come into agreement with what we choose to focus on, so when we focus on this negative view, our mind agrees and tells us this is who we are. However, our mind is wrong. Any negative mindset we might have of ourselves is in opposition to what the Word of God says about us. As believers, we have to look at ourselves with our spiritual eyes, through the Word of God, in order to combat the barrage of lies that attack us when we look at ourselves.
We have to learn to receive our identity from our heavenly Father, not from what we see in a mirror. Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV) says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” God knit us together in our mother’s womb. He created all of our fine details and we are wonderfully made. The Hebrew word for wonderfully made, according to Strong’s Concordance, can also mean distinguished and marvelous. Every part of us is marvelous! This is God’s truth and any mindset or belief that comes against this truth is a lie. Whenever we look in a mirror and start focusing on our negative features or characteristics, we need to stop the lie in its tracks and replace it with the truth. In Ephesians 1:6 Paul tells us that through the grace of God we have become “accepted in the Beloved.” When feelings of rejection, shame, or unworthiness rear their ugly heads in our daily lives, we can counter these lies with the truth: we are accepted in the Beloved. We need to allow the truth of God’s Word to penetrate our minds so that we can believe in our souls that this is who we truly are.
In Isaiah 53:2 it is written about Jesus, “…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Crowds were not drawn to Jesus because of His appearance, they were drawn to Him because the love of His Father emanated from Him. Jesus was confident in His identity as the Son of Man because of the intimate relationship He had with His Father. In Matthew 3:17 after Jesus’ baptism, God’s voice from heaven spoke and said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” The foundation of Jesus’ identity was formed by the love of His Father, not from his physical or emotional being. We were wonderfully created by God who makes no mistakes; His work is marvelous. We need to open our spiritual eyes and view ourselves in God’s mirror to see who we really are. We are loved by our Creator and we are accepted in the Beloved.
Jesus saw our beauty and value even if we could not see it ourselves. He also saw our hurt, our pain, and our suffering, and so sold all to purchase us so that we could live our lives full of His love, joy, and peace. However, when we deny the beauty and value Jesus sees in us and when we don’t agree with His Word, then we void our purchase price and miss out on all that Jesus died to give us. We have to come into agreement with God’s Word when we look at ourselves in the mirror. We have to see what Jesus sees in us and what He was willing to lay down His life for: the love of our Creator. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by the love of God, and when we can accept this love that dwells within us we will learn to accept ourselves for who God made us to be.
The Truth in Action: Too often we say to ourselves that we would like ourselves more if we changed something about ourselves (our weight, hair color or style, personality traits, etc…). However, in any attempt to change ourselves, if we are not focused on allowing God to establish His identity in us, our attempts will only produce temporary results. It is okay to have a desire to change ourselves, but this change should only come through establishing our identity in God first. We need to love ourselves where we are, we need to accept and acknowledge the beauty and value Jesus sees in us as we are, and then we can allow God to do the rest.
Meditate on Scripture: James 1:22-25 – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Further Study: The Psalms are chock-full of wisdom on how to overcome lies that seep into our everyday lives and affect our identity. Meditate on God’s Word and allow His Word to define your identity.
When you are feeling…
- Insecure: Psalms 3; 5; 12; 91
- Purposeless: Psalms 14; 25; 39; 49; 90
- Unimportant:Psalms 8; 90; 139
- Overwhelmed:Psalms 25; 69; 142