You are invited to become the person God desires you to be. It is even greater than the person you want to be. His concept is perfect in every way; whereas, we are limited to what we know by experience on earth. He has an eternal perspective which means He knows the result before you begin your journey to being who you are meant to be.
That journey begins with belief. Obviously, you must believe that God is and is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (see Hebrews 11:6). More than that, you must begin with the foundation that He is good. If you fail to believe He is a good God, you will fail to have a good result. Psalms 139:14 I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Your works; and that my soul knows right well. The reason that God’s works are marvelous and good is He is marvelous and good. If you think differently, you will also believe His works are flawed because you see flaws in Him.
This is where the difficulty lies. If you do not believe God is good, neither will you believe that you are good. Without a good God, you cannot have a good creation, neither can He do a good work in you. That means you don’t stand a chance at becoming the best you possible. Your belief system influences everything about you. Therefore, it pays to examine what you believe about God and how He sees you. This leads to another part of the invitation.
In order to become the new you, you must believe that you are incredibly loved by God. God is love and He is a loving Father, unlike any earthly father. Regardless of how good parents may be, there is not one who even comes close to being a distant contender of the ideal father He is. Likewise, the most abusive parent does not even remotely resemble our heavenly Father. When you believe He loves you and you receive His love, you will trust Him with everything.
Trust vacates doubt!
Trusting God also means the end of testing Him. Children test their parents in a variety of ways. Sometimes, they misbehave just to see if their dad or mom loves them unconditionally. There are believers who do that with the Father, unconsciously. They will cross some proverbial line just to see if that love is unconditional. When you trust Him, much of the self-sabotage goes away.
Another element of the invitation is humbling yourself enough to forgive yourself. As long as you hold onto your past failures, you will be chained to your history. You will not see the future at all, let alone see it properly, because your eyes are turned in the wrong direction. You are not your history. What you did is not who you are, even if it was just a minute ago. Look in the mirror and tell that person, while looking him or her in the eye, “You are who God says you are!” Conviction goes a long way in affirming what you believe, so say it with God-given, Scripture-proven authority.
Keep your eyes on the prize. Focus on His goodness, righteousness and holiness, and you will do what is good, righteous and holy. Walk in love, and hate will not be an option; neither, will envy or jealousy. Love yourself as God loves you, and self-loathing will flee. No, this is not self-help, hocus-pocus; this is godly meditation which yields godly results.
This invitation has perks if you receive it: love, joy, peace, hope, faith, clarity, wisdom, understanding and more. Most importantly, an intimate relationship with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In fact, intimacy with God validates the invitation. That validation eliminates rejection issues. When you know God loves you, you have an eternal love that embraces you, regardless of what our human counterparts do.
One last thought. If you do not believe what God says about you, you are lying to yourself and you are self-deceived. Think about it!
The Perfect Faith Podcast: “Families from the Beginning (Part Three)
