I don't like my hips, my.......

So many of us have a problem with some part of our body that we find so hard to accept. We know the verses from Psalm 139 that tell us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God and He knows and loves everything about us, but we still think we are messed up.

Romans 9:20-21 says 'But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why did You make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?' Paul is not saying that some of us are worth more than others, but simply that the Creator has control over the created object. So we have no right to criticise anything that our Creator made, the amazing thing is He has freely given us all things because He is LOVE. 

This is an amazing picture of all God has done for us and how we have been rescued to walk in the light of Jesus Christ.  When Jesus met a man described in Luke 8:30 the man identified himself as 'Legion'.
This was not his real name but described how he saw himself. Jesus set him free from this torment of negative identity giving him back his self worth and restoring him to his family. We identify who we are by the labels we put on ourselves, 'failure', 'fat', 'uneducated', 'victim' and the rest. We think that is who we are but that is NOT how God sees us or what He made us to be. Click here to discover who Christians are in Jesus.

There is one of my favourite people in the Bible called Mephibosheth. He was born the son of Jonathan living in Lo Debar written about in 2 Samuel 9. This poor man had been dropped by his maid when running from the war in which his father and grandfather had died. As a result Mephibosheth had become a victim of war, disabled when he was only five years old. He lived in obscurity with the family retainer Ziba. 

David remembered his covenant with Jonathan (1 Samuel 20:16) and made enquires to see if he had any relatives left that he may show kindness to them, and is told about Mephibosheth, He immediately responds by asking him to be brought to the palace where he is installed as the King's son. David just encourages him and reassures him that he only wishes him good and grants him ownership of his father's estate and a daily place at the King's table. Even after this generosity, Mephibosheth asks the question 'What is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me?' 2 Samuel 9:8. Not a good self image! Even though a prince and grandson of the King, he still spoke this description out of his own mouth, 'a dead dog'. that is the lowest of the low!

This is such an amazing picture of what happens to us when our Father searches us out from our fruitless, broken, lonely, existences and takes us into His family and pours out blessings of love, care, kindness and provision on us, without us deserving or asking for any of it. God continues to love us and accept us even if we mess up; nothing changes, except we miss out on the free flow of the Holy Spirit giving His peace and joy into our hearts.

God's way of looking at beauty is looking at the heart. 'Your beauty should not come from outward adornment .... instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight' 1 Peter 3:4. 

This is a great challenge to us to change our everyday thinking to line up with how God sees us. Choose a verse that speaks to you about your identity and meditate, speak it and hold on to it till you see it with your eye of faith.