What God Thinks Of You

You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. . . . You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.

Psalm 139:5, 13-16

Most of us have heard a barrage of criticism throughout our growing-up years and into adulthood—at school, at home, at our workplace. People may tell us we fall short in some area, or the voices within our own minds remind us of mistakes we’ve made. That’s when we need to take to heart what God says about us.

Today’s psalm says the Lord shaped us inside and out and loved us even before we were aware of him. He made us for a purpose and equipped us with the gifts and talents to accomplish what he’s prepared for us to do (see Ephesians 2:10).

When you don’t feel accepted by others, soak in the fact that God’s Word says you are accepted in Jesus, the beloved (see Romans 15:7). Turn your ears and eyes to God’s promises instead of to what the world and the people in it think about you—and you’ll begin to experience the peace that comes with knowing you are loved deeply and unconditionally.

Master Creator, thank you for making me just the way I am. Through my weaknesses, demonstrate your power and strength. Use the gifts you put within me for your purposes. I come to you for the acceptance and encouragement I need to face the challenges of this day.

As we come to know ourselves through and through, we come to see ourselves more as God sees us, and then we catch some little glimpse of his designs with us. . . . Until we come to this knowledge, we must take all in faith, believing, though we know not, the goodness of God toward us.

Edward Bouberie Pusey(1800–1882), English theologian and preacher