People often are extremely performance oriented. We learn from the time we are little, the better we perform the more love we receive. In our relationship with God, our thinking often continues in this pattern. We think God will love us and bless us more, the better we perform. But because we aren't able to behave right all the time, we start working and striving, trying to overcome all our weakness.
Our worth is not based on how acceptable we can make ourselves to God. God is looking for people with a right heart attitude toward Him, not a perfect performance record.
2nd Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and froth throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him"
Whose heart is perfect toward him means to have a right heart attitude toward God – to love as much as we know how to love Him; to want what He wants; to want His will; to want to do His will.
We don't earn God's love; we don't earn His blessings. We can go to him at anytime and have our needs met. Hebrews 4:16 days, "Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor), that we may receive mercy (for our failure) and find grace to help in good time for every need (appropriately held and well timed help, coming just when we need it).
People who live and walk in intentional disobedience, but want God to bless them anyway, may think that we don't have to make an effort to overcome our weaknesses to win God's approval. The truth is this: God will use us in spite of our weaknesses and will help us overcome them; we don't have to struggle to overcome them on our own, but we must be progressing toward overcoming them.
God wants us to come to terms with ourselves and learn our value is not in what we do but in who we are. He wants us to be willing to be who we are, weaknesses and all.
Here is the Contrast…The devil wants to bombard us with opportunities to think negative thoughts about ourselves so that we will return to that pattern of thinking most of us learned growing up. He wants us to be contemplating what is wrong with us instead of thinking about what is right with us.
Many people develop a shame-based nature as a result of unfair and unkind treatment by different people- parents, school teachers, friends, strangers. Our attitudes and opinions of ourselves are programmed into us over a period of time.
Dear ones, don't allow how other people treat you to determine your value. People who lack confidence have a private little war going on in their lives. If you want to increase your self-acceptance and your opinion of yourself, decide right here and now that not one more negative thing about you will ever come out of your mouth.
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:-)
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