How you perceive yourself is often slanted by our sinful heart. What we value as important is often not as important as we think. It is important for the moment, but it is not important for eternity. We need to put on eternal glasses instead of the temporal glasses that we wear. How do we do that. Allow me to suggest some ways to do that. . . . 1. Make it your aim to thoroughly understand the do trines of justification and positional sanctification – often we feel that we are not “good enough” to be accepted by those around us and God because we view ourselves as inadequate in some area that is not sinful. Recognizing our position before God as righteous (declared by the work of Christ), and positionally as a saint (declared by our position) gives us perspective. 2. “Reprogram” our conscience by examining each area of doubt in light of the whole counsel of God. – Sometimes we develop an unbiblical view of ourselves because we have adapted the World’s values to our perception. The World did not create us God did, we need to view ourselves accordingly. 3. Learn how to distinguish sin issues … READ MORE

Who am I, is a question that we constantly struggle with. How do we learn to see ourselves as God does, and therefore, learn to value our lives because of God’s purpose for us. The principle of sin that is present in this world, often tempts us to view ourselves as the world views us, but the reality is that we need to evaluate ourselves based on God’s standards not our own. We have already seen that because of the worlds definition of important we often view ourselves inaccurately. We now are reminded that because of those same standards, we often struggle with the things that may be true about ourselves that are not sinful. For example, my height was a constant thorn in my side as a high school student. I wanted to be over 6 foot tall (a mark I will add that I have never reached!), but it never happened. I let this shortfall define my value and my view of myself. I could not change that truth, but as a result I became a “lover of self … rather than a lover of God.” (2 Timothy 3:1-7) These accurate self-perceptions, really did not define my value … READ MORE

We live in a world that has developed into a lovers of themselves, over lovers of God. We began by evaluating how we are to review the accuracy of our perceptions, and to build a view of ourselves based on the clear teaching of the Word of God. We must then change our perception of ourselves in light of that revelation. We continue by exploring second category of inferiority judgments which has to do with a conscience or value system that has not bee biblically programmed. Sometimes people judge themselves to be inadequate in a particular area in which the Bible does not require them to be superior. As a young boy entering my junior year of high school, I was a 4’8″ student who wanted to be the star center of our high school basketball team. Unfortunately, my desire and the coaches assessment did not match. It was not a sin for me to be “short, and unathletic, yet I judged myself to be deficient. My judgment of my person value was based upon a “flaw” that was not my fault, nor was it a true definition of who I was. My problem was that I was overvaluing size … READ MORE