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Have you looked in the mirror lately and said, “Who are you?” Or perhaps you’ve been like I was; you don’t want to look because you don’t like what you see. Either way, I find it amazing how we view ourselves affects what we do or will not do.

It affects the standards set, raised, or lowered in our life choices. As young girls it decides the kind of boy we will date or not date as a teenager. It influences our decisions and hopes for career and marriage as young women.

It shapes what we turn away or just plain put up with in our lives in general. The view of ones’ self is one of the most effective influencers in anyone’s life but especially the woman’s life. That mental picture and eventually the picture we have imprinted on our heart will propel us to the heights of success or lower us into the depths of failure time and time again.
On more than several occasions, I have been questioned about the worthiness of such a subject as self-image or self-worth. One person cited, “Too much focus on self is not healthy.” Another said, “Just be more confident in yourself and get on with life.”

REMEMBER WHAT GOD SAID
I agreed with both but when I examined what the Word of God has said about our image it changes everything including the worthiness of the subject. I believe as we discover or remember what God has said about us (his creation) and agree with him our lives will be changed, steadied or even set on a new course.

In her book, How to Succeed at Being Yourself Joyce Meyers instructs us with, “Our self-image is the inner picture we carry of ourselves.”1 If it’s a distorted image, God wants to change it. How do you see yourself? What does the inner picture look like that you carry of yourself.

Again, our self-image is how we view ourselves. We must include balance in our thinking. Because of this I’m not afraid of the word self-image that is a healthy balanced self-image. I’ve learned we can’t always feel good about ourselves but we can feel right about ourselves.

COMMIT TO CHANGE
Remember, in the first chapter I mentioned we have to commit to change. We are working with God toward renewal in attitude or spirit. Our commitment is to do what it takes to renew the spirit of our mind through the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Years ago, I distinctly remember knowing that I was free, though not completely free from my past. I knew I was delivered though not completely delivered. I knew inside there was still an important step to go and I had no idea how to take it.

This is exactly where God wanted me and wants you-totally depending on him. I wanted to figure out why I felt so unworthy. I am so prone to do it myself or try to figure it out and then bring it to God. I suspect I am not alone in this.

I tried many self-confidence classes and self-help books and courses. I left some of them feeling better about myself but not right about myself. My heavenly Father showed me I could not fix the problem I had in this manner. You may remember from the preface, me describing myself inside. I could do so because my heavenly Father showed me. He showed me myself (my spirit man) I was humped over with my arms hanging to the floor like a monkey.

I was delivered from all abusive situations. My physical wounds were healed and not noticeable. Still, I was struggling inside. I felt so unworthy and incapable of change. I feared I would die before my change would come.

THE POWER OF SELF IMAGE
But, my Lord has since broken the chains on my life! He has caused me to walk upright again and restored my name. Remembering that he did that for me, I know our God will meet you wherever you are. Whether you need an overhaul like I did or you need a small adjustment in your thinking. He is faithful to make us like new.

Here’s a story that shows the power of self-image. In Numbers 13 as God commanded, Moses sent out twelve spies to the Promised Land (Canaan). They came back after forty days with this report, “There we saw the Nephilim (or giants), the sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
As the story goes the entire nation of Israel was on the brink of entering the promised land to receive their inheritance from God. Instead on the forty-first day a crisis in their self-image caused all but two to lose their inheritance.2

When you look into your heart, do you see yourself cowering before your troubles as the Israelites saw themselves or facing each challenge with the power of God?
The fear of the giants and doubt of God’s care caused thousands to sink into mediocrity and eventually stopped them from entering their Promised Land. Charles Stanley describes mediocrity as a heart that fails to trust God’s plans for his life.

According to that description, all of that Israelite generation except two yielded to the crisis and settled into a mediocre existence in the desert. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones that saw themselves as victors in God. They had a correct self-image. The other Israelites were held back because they did not agree with whom God said they were. 2

BREAKING THE CYCLE
Many times we see ourselves through our own critical eye. Other people and wrong choices may have distorted our self-image. The thief Satan works to get us to be anyone other than who God destined us to be. Through this distortion we become deceived in our own mind and imagination.

From this distortion negative thinking begins to flow, then negative talking and eventually negative believing. Unless this cycle is broken a person can become crippled for life never rising above a distorted self-image.

What Promised Land (victory) is God holding out to you? What giants (challenges) will you have to face to enter? Have you realized your entry may depend on viewing yourself as who God says you are?
Decide to agree with God. Father God says you are Beloved and accepted. Say with me, “I am the Beloved and He has accepted me.” He says you are victorious, even more than a conqueror. Say with me again, “I am victorious and more than a conqueror in God.”

Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them…-Luke 2:51a

Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. He grew up in an obscure village called Nazareth in Israel, one of the smallest countries in the world. Even now, the tip of Israel can only claim 7 miles in width. Fulfilling earlier century prophecy, Jesus was called the Nazarene. Also, as prophecy predicted He was despised, rejected and considered insignificant by the men of his day.39

Yet, Jesus impacted His world and the worlds to come with His good news message. After His sacrificial death on the Cross His name was exalted by Father God as the name above all names. In fact, God has declared him sitting at His right hand until all His enemies are made His footstool.
 
How did Jesus gain such significance with the Father and with man? First He overcame an enemy called insignificance. Jesus prevailed over the rumors about his virgin birth. He didn’t listen when the voice of insignificance whispered to him, “You’ll never amount to anything! Look at how they whisper about your mother being pregnant before married.”

He didn’t let the fact that he was born in a stable or grew up in the insignificant little village of Nazareth stop him from doing the works of the Father.40 He didn’t allow the fact that he didn’t start his public ministry until 30. No one declared that he was a child traveling minister.

Insignificance has a voice. That same voice of insignificance plans to kill, steal or pervert God’s plan of significance for your life.  It can speak through others, or it can bombard you as your own thoughts. It taunts, “You’re nobody. Do you think anything you are doing will make any difference?”
 
“After all who will care,” he whispers urging you to give up. You can know the plans of the enemy have been behind every circumstance that has said: you are unimportant, unnoticed, meaningless, trivial, unknown, inconsequential, defamed, undistinguished, forgotten, obscure, strangers, and a foreigner to God.

Subtly, he steals from us by devaluing our gifts or contributions to the Body of Christ. The housewife, the career woman in the workplace, the volunteer in the local church are led to think they have made no real contribution. To the evangelist he says, “Your words mean nothing.

You aren’t stable so who listens to you. Then to the struggling pastor he undermines with, “You’re not well traveled and sophisticated like others. Your whole congregation can fit on one pew.
He robs us of purpose by getting us to grow weary with ever walking in our destiny. Or he pushes the child of God on to the path of compromise.

I’ve learned compromise not only detours us from God’s path but it always lead us farther than we planned to go and we stay longer than we planned to stay. When we don’t know or believe God gifted us with significant lives we will find it hard to combat the lies of our enemy.

Our enemy Satan wants to assign a name to our destiny (final outcome). He wants to give us a name that will perpetuate an unexpected end. For years the devil has tried to give me a name of shame. Through a set of circumstances designed to destroy and a couple of wrong life choices, I received that name. God has since revived and restored my true name of holy and righteous.

 Maybe there is a name or two that he has tried to assign you. Our Lord has restored our name of righteous and holy; the one intended for us through the finished work of Christ at the cross. The name connected to our purpose and destiny is holy. The family that you are most a part of now is righteous and peculiar.41 God has taken great measures to make sure we know we are significant. To develop an overcoming spirit toward insignificance guard against these classic statements of insignificance:

• God doesn’t know me. He said to Jacob and now to us, “I have redeemed you and called you by name.” I know when you sit and rise, your comings and goings…42
• God doesn’t care about the details of my life. You are worth more than many sparrows, even the hairs on your head are numbered. Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.43
• I am a stranger to God. You are no longer an outsider…you belong to God’s own household. My sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow.44
• He has forgotten about me. Even if our mother who birthed us forgets, He our heavenly Father will not forget. We are engraved (tattooed) on the palm of His hands. God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.45
• God doesn’t like me. God blesses the righteous and with favor encompass them as a shield.46
  Maybe God changed his mind. He is the Lord God who changeth not. His gifts and calling are with out repentance.47
• I am poor. He raiseth the poor and needy out of the dust and dunghill to set them among princes, even the princes of his people.48

Throughout Scripture, we know Jesus overcame the circumstances of his birth and humble beginnings by humility, submission to the authorities in His life and obedience to the Father. He exemplified a pattern that increased his wisdom and favor with God and man. We can follow in His footsteps and overcome any voice of insignificance with the word of God. I know like never before that He fully knows me and calls me by name. Won’t you join me as I plan anew to embrace more and more what God has said about us?

Earma Brown, author of W.O.W. Women of Worth! Becoming an Extraordinary Woman Using Ordinary Tools  inspires women around the world to become women of destiny, purpose, and victory through speaking engagements, her books, and Bible studies. Sign up for her free ecolumn Destiny Notes at http://www.wowontheweb.com

For more information, also visit http://www.earmabrown.com