“But God…..”

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”              ~Ephesians 2:8-10

God chose us. Often times I forget that. There is is nothing that I have done to receive His grace. That He loves me so much that He is willing to give it to me as a free gift. And that it is not because of anything I have done. I have messed up plenty. I am messed up. We all are. We all are sinners and we all “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But in His mercy and His grace, He has saved us. Given us a new life in Him. There is nothing we can do for Him to love us any more or any less. He has created us to do good works, works that He has prepared in advance for us to do. It is so simple yet so hard for us to believe at times.

I don’t know about you, but I am my own worst critic. I’m so hard on myself. Always pushing myself to do better. Always wanting to be better. Not wanting to let people down or disappoint them. But more often than not,  I am hardest on myself in the process. Not wanting to let people down and not wanting to let God down. One thing that I have always struggled with is self-confidence. Being the woman God has created me to be and being confident in who He has created to me. Rather than looking at the strengths and the gifts He has given me, I will look at my weaknesses. At my struggles. At my failures. And as humans, we tend to focus on those. Being confident in Christ is something that God is really working on with me. I would often look at myself as being “not good enough” and “what’s wrong with me?” and other lies of the devil. Statements that are not from God at all. And waiting on the Lord and His plan for my life, these lies would creep up on me over and over again. The scary thing is, that I never even realized how hard I was on myself until a good friend of mine pointed out how often I would put myself down. And that is not what God wants me to do at all.

But with God’s help, we can overcome the obstacles in life. And that includes putting ourselves down. Being confident in who Christ created us to be. Finding our identity in Him and His plan and direction for our lives. That He couldn’t love us anymore than He does now. And that when we are putting ourselves down, we are really telling God that He made a mistake. And God doesn’t make mistakes. Be confident in the person Christ created you to be. Even with your flaws and blemishes.

Anneli