How Do You See Yourself

January 28, 2024

How Do You See Yourself?

”And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”“

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Imagine God is saying that to you my friend. 

This week I was reminded that we must see ourselves the way God sees us. As Christians, born again, children of the Most High God, how do you see yourself? 

I realized that the battles in the mind from the enemy will always be to bring us to a place where we don’t see how very precious we are to God, or how pleased He is with us. 

That’s sad because when God looks at us, He sees Jesus in all His perfection! That may be hard to digest, but it’s the truth! God doesn’t look at our sins and failures, or all of what we see as our shortcomings. 

No! He sees a beautiful creation breathed from his very mouth. He sees someone very special whom He knit together in our mother’s womb; someone that He gifted with something very special to be used in this life to bless everyone around us. 

Here is how special you and I are to God. 

”Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; 

That’s from Genesis 1. So let’s stop and think about that and how very powerful it is. You were made to look like God (Jesus’, the physical representation of God) and you were made to act like Him! 

How awesome is that my friend! So if He made us in His image, then sent Jesus to be our Savior and give us His Spirit to live in us, why would we ever see ourselves as anything less than His beloved royal children? 

 

He made us and created us to do the special things He designed us to do. Here is what Ephesians says, ”For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.“

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Here’s more that He says about us, ”and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,“

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

And how about this? 

”But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.“

‭‭I Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

As I pondered this stuff about being His accepted in the Beloved child, why would we ever allow the devil to put negative thoughts about who we are to our Lord in our minds???? 

The big thing satan wants to do is to convince us that we are failures and will never measure up. He doesn’t want us to know how much God wants to do for us to bless others. He doesn’t want us to feel the love in the spirit and to know that God’s love far exceeds any human love we could ever know. 

Why? Because if we knew that deep down in our hearts, we wouldn’t let the devil slow us down for a second! Church, it’s time to wake up to what God has already assured us in His Word about who we really are in Him and how precious we are to Him! 

Then we can walk confidently in our calling as we love Him with all our hearts and take that love to the world around us. He is a good Father, Savior, Lord, Helper and Comforter! He will take us deeper than we ever thought possible to achieve more than we could ever ask or imagine. 

Let’s renew our minds starting right now and say, “enough devil!” Tell him who you really are in Christ and let him go tell his cohorts all that bad stuff! We are not going to circumvent the beauty of what God created because we listen the biggest loser and look at ourselves as anything less than royalty! 

We have a purpose and destiny to fulfill and we can approach every giant that we face from a place of victory! After all, God is for us and He will never leave us or forsake us! He loves us with an everlasting love! 

Believe it and go forward! I’m speaking to us all when I say, look in the mirror and tell yourself how loved and forgiven and special you are! Begin to love yourself the way God loves you (and me!) and watch how free you will feel. 

It’s about breaking negative thought patterns and renewing our mind and soul that our circumstances do NOT dictate who we are in Christ! Our born again spirit does! 

And if anyone who reads this is not born again, it’s time you get born again so you will see the beautiful you God made you to be. 

I needed this during this week. I’m taking it seriously and refuse to let the devil tell me I’m not good or I’m not going to fulfill my call! Let’s join together and tell the devil that he is the loser! 

We have the victory and all the love of God Almighty behind us to walk in the divine and everlasting love we were made to. 

God loves me and sees Jesus when He looks at me. And friend, that’s what He sees when He sees you! 

God bless you this week as you walk in the knowledge of His perfect love and forgiveness. 

Please feel free to contact me directly as this is a private text to each of you. Share my number with anyone you like so they can be added to our list! 

Share the blessing and be blessed! If you feel so led, you can donate to our ministry by going to our website and click on the donate button. We are a 501c3 non profit organization. 

Fishnloavesministries.org

Denny and Hanny Stearns 

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc. 

Multiplying God’s Word around the globe 🌍

Go the Extra Mile

 

This week I was led to share with you about going the extra mile. In today’s world, many times we stop short when it comes to helping others. Jesus made it clear that we are to love Him first with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves.  

We know for certain that neither of those commands comes easy to our flesh! When it comes down to it, our lives have become so busy with whatever we have chosen to fill up our days that many times we fail to stop and look around us at who may need help. It isn’t just a “spare time” thing we might consider doing.  

In fact, as Christians, it should be an integral part of our daily lives - both in our work and our personal lives. In our marketplace work in the insurance business, we encounter people who need help regularly. We can offer to pray for them, and at other times, we can step it up and go further to offer assistance in many other ways.  

Maybe it’s taking someone to the doctor or to get a pet scan when they don’t have a ride for something. Other times, it’s being willing to answer the phone when it’s inconvenient because someone needs help. For us, we are on call 7 days a week. We never know when a person will call for help, advice or prayer.  

The point is, this is a call for every Christian to step it up a notch. Today, the world is broken and hurting. For those that have experienced the awesome love of God in times of trial and need, it should be a pleasure and considered an honor to reach out to others and say, “I can help you!” It takes us out of the comfort zone and puts us smack dab in the middle of God’s grace to do more than what is expected for another human being.  

After all, didn’t He Himself set the example for us when He went further than His human flesh wanted to take Him as he went to the cross for each and every person!  

Here is Jesus’ command to us;” And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. “ Matthew 5:41 NKJV  

There is much in this same chapter about going beyond what seems natural to do when it comes to how we treat others, even those who are not easy to deal with.  

In our insurance business we have had our share of those who challenge us, and we show them Jesus’ love when we don’t let our flesh rule and our patience run out! After all, they will know us by our love, amen! 

 ”For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?“ Matthew 5:46-47 NKJV  

 Remember my friend that they will know us by our love. ❤️ Our whole life is ministry unto the Lord our God. Our prayer is that we will all remember this in the days to come! The world needs Jesus, and you may be the only way someone can see Him work!  

 May you have a very blessed day, week, month and year as you love! ❤️ Please feel free to share this with anyone and give them my number. This is a private text to you and you may respond if you like! I love to hear from you!  

 Loving God, loving people, what life is all about! Denny and Hanny Stearns  

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc. 

Multiplying God’s Word around the globe 🌍 

Knowing Jesus and Making Him Known

 Knowing Jesus and Making Him known. 

 ”He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”“ ‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ ”

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”“ ‭‭Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ 

With all the excitement of the holidays now behind us, how are we doing in our relationship with our risen Lord and Savior? It’s a great question to ask ourselves after all the hustle, bustle and wonder of Christmas. 

First came Jesus, then the salvation He bought and paid for, and then the calling to go make disciples of every nation. It starts with our relationship with Him and continues to flow out of us into every place we go. 

Where do we get the power to do that? As most of us know, it’s by the power of Holy Spirit. After Jesus left the earth to return to the Father, He asked the disciples to wait until they received the promise. Before He left, He told them that He was going away but that they would receive the Helper - Holy Spirit. 

As we continue from the Advent, the witness, and the command to go, as born again children of God, we now go out to all the world, not in our own strength, but by the power of His Spirit at work through us. 

This week we went to visit a client to help her with some insurance needs. She is a very sweet lady and battling cancer concerns. After discussing the business at hand, we moved to the more important matter of praying for her. She was so grateful for the prayers. 

She also had questions about why things are going on in the world like they are. We were able to explain things from the Bible to help her see things from God’s perspective. Every encounter we have in our ministry is so different, yet all of them wonderful in their own special ways. 

We are purposed to know Jesus personally and make Him known to as many as possible. It’s a new year, and He has made us new - in Him. Then He commissioned us to go and tell the world the good news! The Helper - God’s Holy Spirit has come! 

Now that we are past the excitement and wonder of Christmas, I pray that all of us will purpose to go out there this year with more zeal and passion for the Lord and share Him with as many as possible! He made us new, brand new - and He filled us with His power, so let’s make it a better year than last year and step up our efforts to know Jesus intimately and make Him known around the world! 🌎 

Please feel free to share this message with anyone and give them this number to reach us directly. It is private to you and no one sees your responses. 

Loving God, loving people- what life is all about! ✝️♥️🙏🏻 

Denny and Hanny Stearns Fish n Loaves Ministries, Inc. 

Multiplying God’s Word around the globe 🌍