“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zep 3:17)
I’ve suffered for many years with a low self-image. That’s because I was looking at myself through my eyes and not God’s. God made me for a special one-of-a-kind, one on One relationship with Him. This is a mind-blowing truth and I’m still grappling with it! The fact that God delights in me like the prophet, Zephaniah said; that He rejoices over me with singing? Can it be true? Really—even for me? Even for you?
The only answer can be yes because God says so. Not because we want to believe it. Not because my pastor or countless others say so. But because the God, who cannot lie, says so in His Word!
He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. (Ps 18:19)
…The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey …and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deut 30:9-10)
But what’s an even more amazing fact is that God doesn’t need you or me, but wants an intimate relationship with us. He didn’t create any of us because He needed to love someone. He is self-sufficient within the trinity.
Yet He made us for His pleasure, even though He knew it would be at a tremendous cost.
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (Eph 1:5 NLT)
For reasons that we simply cannot understand, God loves you and me! Despite our sinfulness!
“Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you….” (Is 43:4)
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (Deut 7:6; see also Col 3:12)
I am so eternally grateful that my Creator has given me the faith to believe these astounding facts.
Oh, I still struggle at times. I guess I always will to some extent this side of Heaven. But in an ever-increasing manner over many years of walking with Him, God has enabled me to absorb this truth into the core of my being.
Do you see yourself as His precious child, as His treasured possession? He does!
You don’t have to understand this wonderful truth in order to accept it.
So if you struggle with a poor self-image, realize this is a wrong assessment. Read what God has to say about you. Let God Himself communicate to you how much He loves and values you. Ponder on the humongous price He paid to redeem you.
“An object’s value is always determined by the price paid for it…. The value of God’s payment for us tells us how much we are worth to him. We are worth the life of his Son.”[i]
Ask the Creator of your soul to help you accept this wonderful truth; to give you eyes of faith to see yourself as He sees you. And when you do, you will fall down in utter adoration for the One who thinks you are worth it!
P.S. I have written extensively on this topic of overcoming a low self- esteem. See my books for additional help.
Listening to these songs will also help:
Who You Say I Am ~Hillsong
You Say ~Lauren Daigle
THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
[i] Chip Ingram, God: As He Longs for You to See Him (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2004), 193.