Enjoying Who God Created You to Be
by Joyce MeyerStart believing today that you are a rare, one-of-a-kind, valuable and precious woman. To help you learn how to be successful at being yourself, I want to give you some easy-to-follow suggestions:
Speak good things about yourself. Declare what God’s Word says about you. For example, say to yourself, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am made acceptable in the Beloved. God formed me with His own hand, He loves me, and God doesn’t make mistakes.”
Avoid comparing yourself with other women. God must love variety, or all of us wouldn’t look so different. He has created each of us differently right down to our fingertips. We can look to certain people as good examples to follow, but even then, good traits if duplicated will manifest differently through our individual personalities.
Focus on your potential instead of your limitations. Refuse to concentrate on your weaknesses except in an effort to turn them into strengths. Keep your flaws in perspective. People with a high level of confidence have just as many weaknesses as those without confidence, but they focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses.
Learn to cope with criticism. If you dare to be different, you’ll have to expect some criticism. Going along with the crowd when you know in your heart that God is leading you in a different direction is one of the reasons women don’t succeed at being themselves. You won’t be comfortable in your own skin if you go against your own convictions.
You are a woman who is perfected and complete in Him. When you start to believe that, you will no longer feel that you are lacking anything or that there is anything wrong with you.
Remember this: God will never anoint you to be anyone other than yourself. Let now be your time to go forward and be set free from the torments of comparing yourself with others and trying to be someone you’re not. God is proud of who He made you to be!
“She did not wish to remember; it troubled her when people tried to disturb her loneliness; she wished to be alone. She wished for nothing else in the world.”
Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out (via flowerville)
“Why do I read? I just can’t help myself. I read to learn and to grow, to laugh and to be motivated. I read to understand things I’ve never been exposed to. I read when I’m crabby, when I’ve just said monumentally dumb things to the people I love. I read for strength to help me when I feel broken, discouraged, and afraid. I read when I’m angry at the whole world. I read when everything is going right. I read to find hope. I read because I’m made up not just of skin and bones, of sights, feelings, and a deep need for chocolate, but I’m also made up of words. Words describe my thoughts and what’s hidden in my heart. Words are alive — when I’ve found a story that I love, I read it again and again, like playing a favorite song over and over. Reading isn’t passive — I enter the story with the characters, breathe their air, feel their frustrations, scream at them to stop when they’re about to do something stupid, cry with them, laugh with them. Reading for me, is spending time with a friend. A book is a friend. You can never have too many.”
Gary Paulsen
(via hellanne)
While many of us are richly blessed spiritually and physically, many of God’s people face hardship and difficulty. You may be one of those in difficult circumstances. Please remember that God has not abandoned you. Jesus is the great reminder that God cares and involves himself with the broken, forgotten, and downtrodden. Please know as well, that tens of thousands are praying for you today in the prayer that follows.
Prayer…
O God, please be with those whose lives are difficult and filled with pain and sadness. Please minister in personal and mighty ways to every believer with a crushed spirit. Dear Father, please rekindle the hope of every discouraged Christian. Empower them as they hold on to their faith. Pour out your Spirit with power, strengthening each weary and burdened heart. Help each one of your children hold onto his or her faith, finding a renewed sense of hope in your presence. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
