By Tijuana J. Williams
People whisper YOU are not good enough. Managers say YOU are not qualified for the next level. Fear says YOU can’t possibly handle everything as a single parent. Doctors say YOU won’t make it. The world says YOUR family is not affluent enough. Teachers say YOU are not as smart as the others. Statistics say YOU will inevitably fail because of your family history.
Then the mind begins to wonder, “Could they be right?”
How often do we shrink into a place of mediocrity that affirms the predictions of people, managers, fear, doctors, the world, teachers, and statistics because we don’t know who we are?
But…what if YOU heard the truth? What if the words spoken about YOU caused YOU to stand with dignity? Instead of mediocrity, could there be words that would produce excellence in YOU? God says things about YOU that people, managers, fear, doctors, the world, teachers, and statistics rarely recognize. I am grateful our God does not look through their lenses; instead, He looks at YOU through His eyes of unconditional love.
When He sees YOU, this is what He says:
I have always loved YOU. (Jeremiah 3:13)
Nothing can separate YOU from My love. (Romans 8:38-39)
YOU are forgiven. (Ephesians 1:7)
YOU are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14)
YOU have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
For YOU are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that YOU should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
YOU are more than a conqueror. (Romans 8:37)
YOU have been redeemed (released, freed, delivered, rescued, saved) from the curse of the enemy. (Psalm 107:2)
YOU are healed. (Isaiah 53:5 & 1 Peter 2:24)
I have not given YOU the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
The Lord is YOUR Shepherd; YOU shall not want. (Psalm 23:1)
I know the plans I have for YOU, plans to prosper YOU and not to harm YOU, plans to give YOU a hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)
There were times in my life when it was hard to believe these things about myself. Those very things spoken by people, managers, fear, doctors, the world, teachers, and statistics, I had inadvertently internalized.
If this is where YOU find yourself, I pray these scriptures become YOUR confession and the song, I Am What You See, by Bishop Paul S. Morton becomes YOUR prayer. This song penetrated my heart from the first moment I listened to the words. A portion of it says:
Help me to see me
The way You see me
Sometimes I see pain Lord
When You see victory
I see where I am Lord
You see where I shall be
Open my eyes, help me believe
I am what You see
Regardless of what people, managers, fear, doctors, the world, teachers, and statistics say, YOU must remember who YOU are and whose YOU are. YOU belong to Him and there is nothing that can separate YOU from His love.
The childhood song says, “A, E, I , O , U, and sometimes Y.” If you missed the first four vowels, visit birminghamtimes.com and check me out in the Religion Section. And what about next week? Maybe there will be a “Y”….maybe not!
For more about Tijuana J. Williams, visit www.sharingmyheartblog.com.
