Have you ever caught your reflection and wondered if what you see aligns with how God perceives you? Our latest heart-to-heart unpacks the stark contrast between our self-assessment and the way God beholds us. We delve into the weighty reality that while we can be ensnared by our past, God's viewpoint is shaped by His grace and vision for our potential. Leaning on the wisdom within 1 Samuel and 1 Peter, we unravel the truth that God's focus is on our hearts and the virtues we can cultivate through Christ. As His children, we possess an innate sense of belonging and purpose, emboldened by the Holy Spirit's assurance as promised in Hebrews. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises to redefine your sense of self in the most uplifting way.
The episode also turns the mirror on the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit and how it transforms our self-perception. Our narrative often gets muddled by the echoes of past errors, yet through the lens of scriptures from 2 Corinthians and Romans, we're reminded that God sees us as new creations, devoid of condemnation. I share a personal journey of realizing one's own worth as viewed by the Creator, a testament to the life-altering power of embracing God's vision for us. It's a transformative revelation that we are seen as holy, immaculate, and liberated from sin. This episode is an invitation to adopt this new identity, influencing how we live and move in our daily lives. Tune in to experience a shift in perception that may just change everything.
Have you ever caught your reflection and wondered if what you see aligns with how God perceives you? Our latest heart-to-heart unpacks the stark contrast between our self-assessment and the way God beholds us. We delve into the weighty reality that while we can be ensnared by our past, God's viewpoint is shaped by His grace and vision for our potential. Leaning on the wisdom within 1 Samuel and 1 Peter, we unravel the truth that God's focus is on our hearts and the virtues we can cultivate through Christ. As His children, we possess an innate sense of belonging and purpose, emboldened by the Holy Spirit's assurance as promised in Hebrews. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises to redefine your sense of self in the most uplifting way.
The episode also turns the mirror on the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit and how it transforms our self-perception. Our narrative often gets muddled by the echoes of past errors, yet through the lens of scriptures from 2 Corinthians and Romans, we're reminded that God sees us as new creations, devoid of condemnation. I share a personal journey of realizing one's own worth as viewed by the Creator, a testament to the life-altering power of embracing God's vision for us. It's a transformative revelation that we are seen as holy, immaculate, and liberated from sin. This episode is an invitation to adopt this new identity, influencing how we live and move in our daily lives. Tune in to experience a shift in perception that may just change everything.
My website is https://www.godslovingsacrifice.com
Speaker 1:
Today we're going to talk about sight, or maybe more about seeing, and how do we see ourselves? How does God see us? And do Christians really understand how God sees us, the way he looks at us, the way he sees us? There's so many things that we see in ourselves. We see our past. We see things we've done wrong. We look at who we are now and all the things in our past that made us who we are. Is that really true? Is it the things in our past that made us who we are now? Or, as Christians, is it God who made us?
Speaker 1:
I always tell people I would never change anything about my past because it's brought me to where I am today. I say that because I feel like everything that's happened in my past, god has been my guide through it all and he's led me to where I am. But I still don't always look at myself the way God looks at me. I don't think of myself the way God thinks of me, and that's really kind of sad that we don't do that. If we look at ourselves the way God looks at us when we try to be the people that God sees when he looks at us, how much better off do we be? You know, the first thing that he sees is he sees us through his grace. First Samuel 16.7 says but the Lord said to Samuel Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord sees not as a man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. He sees our heart. We don't look at our heart I think sometimes we don't even know what's in our heart but he sees us through his grace and we need to apply that grace to other people. We see, but we also need to remember that that grace is applied to us. He also sees us as perfect. We are his perfect creation. First Peter 2.9 says but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nationa, people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellences of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Perfect. He sees us as his perfection. Do you look at yourself as being perfect? None of us do. We like to joke about it. I'm a perfectionist, but we don't see ourselves as the perfect. That God sees us as His perfect is a holy perfect. You know he also sees his work in us.
Speaker 1:
Ephesians 2-10 says For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 2 Corinthians 5-17 says Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest passed away and, behold, the new has come and we're in him. He sees his work and where that work? Can you believe it? God made this wonderful world and he thought it needed one of each of us.
Speaker 1:
We seem to look at our past lot. We look at where we've come from. He sees our future. Do you see your future all the time?
Speaker 1:
Romans 8, 38-39 says For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights nor depths, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. In Christ Jesus, our Lord, he sees our future. He sees us in his Son and he sees his Son in us. He no longer sees us in sin.
Speaker 1:
Psalms 32, 1-2 says Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered, blessed is man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Being iniquity means setting sin to one's account. So the Lord no longer sees sin. He doesn't see it. It's gone. We see it Sometimes. That's all we can see in ourselves, but he doesn't see it. We are his children those of you who have children. We know our children's shortcomings, we know our children's bad deeds. And even though God is the Father and we are his children, as parents we are not exactly like God, because sometimes all we see is our kid's shortcomings. He doesn't see it.
Speaker 1:
Psalms 100, verse 3 says Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and not we ourselves. We are his people in the sheep of his pasture. We are his, we are his children. Sometimes I just want to shout when I think I am a child of God. How wonderful is that? Does that give you chills to think about? I'm God's child. Psalm 112-13 says but as many as receive him to them. He gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh or the will of man, but of God. We're his, we are his. Do you see yourself as his? There is a song I know I'm talking about a song again, but there's a song that I've really liked growing up and it says I'm so proud to be in the family of God and that is so wonderful to be in the family of God.
Speaker 1:
He sees us through the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 10, 15 through 18 says but the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after he had said before the covenant that I will make with them, after those days says Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds and I will write them. Then he adds their sin and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. He sees us through the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:
The Holy Spirit intercedes for us and he sees that he no longer sees our past. Sometimes we seem to want to dwell in there. We see ourselves through our past experiences, our past rights and our past wrongs. Our past wrongs for him are as thrown as far as the east is from the west, but we keep wanting to rudge it up. Why don't we see ourselves as God sees we should? If he sees us as holy, then we should strive to be holy. If he sees us as perfect, then we should try to live in his perfection. If he sees no sin in us, then we shouldn't live in sin. We need to remember we are his children. He sees us through his grace, that grace that he sent his son to save us. He sees us in our future.
Speaker 1:
2 Corinthians 15-17-19 says, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. And do you know what? There is no condemnation in us. He sees no condemnation.
Speaker 1:
Romans 8-1-4 says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in, that was weak through the flesh, god did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh and the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. No condemnation. He sees our future. The Holy Spirit leads us.
Speaker 1:
Why can't we see ourselves as that? When you see yourself as God sees, you truly as God sees, you read these scriptures. Go over these scriptures. Remember what God thinks of us, what God sees in us, even when we can't see it in ourselves. I talked to a girl one day and she was talking about somebody had bragged on her, and she says I just don't see it. I don't see that in me. And I told her you don't know what an awesome person you are. See yourself as God sees. You See that awesome person that God sees. When you see the person that God sees in you, then become the person he sees and with his grace, his love and his forgiveness, he will make you a new creation.
