Devotionals

God is God and you are a son of God. The concept you have of yourself must not be based in “self”. Many people speak of “self-esteem” or “self-image”; this is not accurate however. As children of God, we want to base our concept of ourselves on what God has said about us. If a Christian had “self-esteem” or a good “self-image”, then his or her picture would still be based on the opinion of man, and not on God’s Word. Do not decide who you are because of what has happened to you or what people say about you. Do not base your opinion on your accomplishments, nor on your gifts and talents. You are not loved by the King of kings and Lord of lords because you are particularly gifted or talented, nor because you have accomplished more or less than others. You are loved based on God – God is Love and God is the Father; therefore the Father loves His children. You are created in the image of God. You should have “God-image” and “God-esteem”. Then when good or bad opinions come your way, you will be neither flattered, nor disappointed.

Jesus told Pilate in chapter 18 of the Gospel of John, “Those who are of God, hear God’s voice.” You must know that you are of God in order to hear God’s voice. The enemy would like to set up barriers between you and God’s voice so that, even when God is speaking to you, you do not hear him because of the barriers. The devil wants to send noise into our airspace, so to speak, so that we will be distracted by perception, environment, context of what is being spoken, the root motive, and the person who is speaking. If you get caught up with the person speaking and forget what the message is, you will also miss the voice of God. Many times, God speaks through people. We must hear clearly, and not through the guise of offense, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Many people approach a person sent by God to deliver a message with animosity and unbelief based on past experiences. They say, “I don’t like the way that man looks. I don’t like his clothes or his accent. I don’t like how he stands. I don’t like how forceful he is.” They reject God’s words based on the appearance of the speaker. Because of this they miss all that God has for them. God speaks through normal people, people with flaws and attitudes. We must be able to recognize what is of God so that we are not distracted by outward appearances.

Originally, when man and God were in intimate relationship and communication, they were located in an environment that was created specifically for that task. It was the Garden of Eden. It was an environment where there was no noise, nothing of the flesh, nothing created by the fall, to distract from what God was saying to his son, Adam. God wants to restore us to this environment. He wants to remove the noise and distractions that hinder us from receiving His love. Jesus did this. His blood destroys every hostile dividing wall between us and God and between us an other people.