Are You Looking in the Wrong Mirror?
It's so important how we see ourselves. Your self-image will determine whether you reach your full potential. If you see yourself as lacking, at a disadvantage, or unattractive, it will limit you. It's not that you don't have great potential; it's that your self-image is distorted. It's as though you've walked into a room filled with mirrors at a carnival that distort your body all out of proportion and believing that you actually look like what you are seeing. Of course, we know better than that, but how many of us don't recognize when we're looking at a distorted mirror in real life? We see ourselves as not talented, unqualified, and never good enough. That distorted image is holding us back. We have to get rid of the wrong mirror.
The Scripture says you've been made in the image of God. He made you talented, beautiful, smart, and confident. You are fully equipped for the purpose He's laid out for you. But the enemy doesn't want you to see yourself that way. He puts up distorted mirrors to change your self-image. Psalm 139:14 says, "I've been fearfully and wonderfully made," but when you look in the distorted mirror, you see all your flaws, and everything you don't like is exaggerated. You've been forgiven and redeemed, but all you see is your mistakes, failures, and times you didn't measure up. The person looking back at you in the distorted mirror is guilty and unworthy.
If life has treated you unfairly, you'll see yourself in that distorted mirror as a victim, defeated, with nothing good in your future. But the truth is that God has beauty for those ashes. What was meant for harm, He's turning to your advantage. What's the problem? You're looking in the wrong mirror. As long as you're letting that distorted image define who you are, it will keep you from rising higher. You have to start looking in the right mirror.
James 1 says that God's Word is like a mirror. It reflects who you really are. What God says about you is the true image that you need to keep in front of you. You are not defined by people, by your past, by how you were raised, or by what didn't work out. You are defined by your Creator. When you look in the mirror of God's Word, you'll see that you are valuable, talented, confident, favored, blessed, and worthy. As you see yourself as God sees you, it begins to heal a damaged self-image, to repair the hurts and scars that have caused you to see yourself as lacking, inferior, unqualified. It may not happen overnight, but if you keep seeing yourself the right way, little by little you're going to become what you're seeing.
The Scripture says you've been made in the image of God. He made you talented, beautiful, smart, and confident. You are fully equipped for the purpose He's laid out for you. But the enemy doesn't want you to see yourself that way. He puts up distorted mirrors to change your self-image. Psalm 139:14 says, "I've been fearfully and wonderfully made," but when you look in the distorted mirror, you see all your flaws, and everything you don't like is exaggerated. You've been forgiven and redeemed, but all you see is your mistakes, failures, and times you didn't measure up. The person looking back at you in the distorted mirror is guilty and unworthy.
If life has treated you unfairly, you'll see yourself in that distorted mirror as a victim, defeated, with nothing good in your future. But the truth is that God has beauty for those ashes. What was meant for harm, He's turning to your advantage. What's the problem? You're looking in the wrong mirror. As long as you're letting that distorted image define who you are, it will keep you from rising higher. You have to start looking in the right mirror.
James 1 says that God's Word is like a mirror. It reflects who you really are. What God says about you is the true image that you need to keep in front of you. You are not defined by people, by your past, by how you were raised, or by what didn't work out. You are defined by your Creator. When you look in the mirror of God's Word, you'll see that you are valuable, talented, confident, favored, blessed, and worthy. As you see yourself as God sees you, it begins to heal a damaged self-image, to repair the hurts and scars that have caused you to see yourself as lacking, inferior, unqualified. It may not happen overnight, but if you keep seeing yourself the right way, little by little you're going to become what you're seeing.