By Chris WittsTuesday 24 Sep 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Nick Vucic is a remarkable man. You may have seen him in some TV specials. He was born without arms and legs, but he lets nothing stop him from achieving what he wants in life. Here’s what he said one day, “if we went by the world’s definition of who I’m supposed to be because I look weird. Well, surely this guy can’t have a productive life. He can’t have a sense of humour. Surely he can’t love life. We stereotype people in this world. And so if the world thinks you’re not good enough, it’s a lie.“
You know, get a second opinion. I thought, that’s a pretty good quote.
And he makes a great deal of sense, especially if you feel you’re not good enough or you look different to others. Many of us feel deep down that we are not good enough. I’m not a good enough father. No matter how hard I try, I’m inadequate. My best is just not good enough. I just don’t feel I’ll ever be good enough as a valuable member of my local community for example. Now I think there is a problem here. Many of us believe our worth is based on what others say about us.
How we should see ourselves
Do you worry about what others say or even think about you? And some of us have grown up in a home where we have had a lot of encouragement and we feel good about ourselves. And yet others have grown up hearing ‘you’re stupid’ or ‘you’re pathetic’. And we’ve believed that ‘oh, I wish you were more like your brother.’ Well, you think maybe I am not that good. But then someone says something good about you or gives you a compliment, and you can start feeling better about yourself.
Maybe you’ve made some mistakes in your past and you think that well, I did something stupid, and I can’t forgive myself for what I did. So I’m of no worth. Isn’t it sad when we can’t forgive ourselves for what we’ve done? There’s a book called ‘The Wild Goose Chase‘ by Mark Batterson.
And he wrote this – “We become so fixated on our past mistakes that we forfeit the future opportunities. We mistakenly think that our mistakes disqualify us from being used by God.” Now here lies the difference as a Christian. You can look above the past failures. There are many people who disqualify themselves from serving God simply because of this.
They think they’re not good enough. It was something, perhaps a mistake in the past, But we need to remember that we get our worth and value from what God says about us. We’re not who others say we are, and we’re not the sum total of our past experiences. We are who God says we are, and this is where we find our worth and our value. Whenever the lie comes up, ‘I’m not good enough’, we’ve got to replace it with this statement – God’s truth. God says I love you, the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:7 – God cares for you so turn your worries over to him. Now that includes how you feel about yourself. When we come to Christ, our old nature dies. We have a new heart and a new spirit. We are a new creation.
I think we’re often haunted by those negative tapes that continue to run in our mind, and that’s why we need to capture these lies and get rid of them. Let God’s truth renew our minds. And when we do this, we will begin to believe what God says about us. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says you do not belong to yourself. For God bought you with a high price. We are valuable because we belong to God.
The image here of being bought with a price comes from the days of buying slaves. The slaves were put in the market to be sold, and then people would buy them for the agreed price. So our price, the cost of purchasing us was Jesus. No one has any business telling you you’re a nobody. Because God has made you and redeemed you through Jesus Christ. And you can feel good about yourself because you belong to him.
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, help me to deal with this lie where I feel in myself that I’m not good enough. Maybe, Lord, I have done a lot of bad things, thought wrong thoughts and even hurt people. And yet, Lord, if that’s the past and I’ve come to you for forgiveness, I can move ahead with courage and optimism, knowing that you love me. So, Lord, help me today with those thoughts, I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.